A Place in the World
by aceman67
Summary: The story follows James Soul, a Starfleet Marine Corps Major, picking up the peices of his life after the end of the Dominion war, where his brother and the women he loved were killed in the clymactic final battle over Cardassia. Story is completed as is.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

James stood there in the rain like a statue. The weather in the small Atlantic fishing town of Mahone Bay seemed to know that one of its own had come to her final rest. The majority of the town that knew Amanda gathered in the small family plot to pay their final respects to a young woman that was taken far before her time.

I stood next to Amanda's family. There were only three of the Harrison family left now. Amanda's father was lost at sea almost fifteen years ago, leaving his wife Melissa to raise three children on her own, who was standing with her now. Amanda's younger brother, Joshua who was only ten years old, was next his mother, while the oldest, Erin, a Commander in Starfleet now, who had just landed the first officers post on the USS _Keewatin_.

I shot a sideways glance at her, only to see her bottom lip quivering, almost at the point of losing her composure. She had lost her sister and the man she was going to marry during the war. I would have never have thought that my little brother Matthew would have caught the fancy of the woman next to me. They had met at the academy before the war started, and dated for ages. Matthew popped the question out of the blue at Graduation. He caused quite the stir at the party, too. Matthew always liked to show off, so he arranged for their favourite song to play and at the end, and under a spot light, proposed to her. We all couldn't have been happier. But all that was cut short the following day when we all heard news that the Dominion had officially declared war on the Federation, and we all got our marching orders.

I reached over and grabbed her hand, which she then squeezed. The rain let up at that time and the sun poked out through the miasma of grey clouds. The funeral was nearing its end. A Starfleet officer walked slowly up to Melissa and handed her the blue flag of the United Federation of Planets and said something that I couldn't make out. I knew what he said though. He was expressing Starfleet's sympathy for their loss. She then asked him to give the flag to her son. He then stepped back and saluted the family.

After the funeral was over, I sat on one of the benches and stared out over the graveyard, which had a view of the bay and the town below, a very beautiful site to behold. With the exception of a few more modern buildings, the town hadn't changed much over the centuries.

"Can I sit down?" someone asked.

Turning around, I was surprised to see that it was Erin. She had a mug of hot chocolate in each of her hands, and handed one to me after sitting down without waiting for me to answer. "How come you haven't come inside for the reception?" she asked. "You're going to catch a cold."

I took a sip of the hot drink, feeling its warmth cascade down my chest. "I don't know. I just… I just don't want to leave this place." I said, not sounding sure of myself for the first time in my life, which left me feeling very unsettled. I was a Career soldier. A Marine; one of "Starfleet's finest". I was supposed to be trained to make snap decisions. To be always confident, to never question myself.

"You loved her, didn't you?" Erin asked out of nowhere.

I nearly dropped my mug. She just brought up a subject that I was most likely not ready to face. My hands started to shake. I put my mug down on the gravel path in front of the bench and tried to steady myself. Tears started to well up in my eyes.

I felt her arms wrap around me. I couldn't stop myself from crying into her shoulder. After a few minutes I calmed down.

"Ever since that day, I've been running it over and over in my mind. Seeing if there was anything I could have done differently. To see if there was only something I could have done, maybe Amanda and Matthew would still be with us."

"James, they knew the risks when they signed up, especially in the field that the three of you picked out for your selves." She said to me. "And listen to yourself! What would you have done? Grounded them? Taken away their flight status? You were their CO; you of all people should know what taking away a pilot's wings can do. They would've never have forgiven you. You did you're job" she said on the brink of tears. "And they did theirs…"

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright. Anyways, there was a reason I came out here in the first place. I wanted to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"James, I'm pregnant." She said with a half laugh, placing a hand on her stomach.

"Wh… What? When did you find out?" I asked, embracing her in a hug, and for the first time in a long time, I had a smile on my face.

"My doctor told me about a day after I heard the news about Matt. I haven't told anyone yet, and I thought I should tell you first. Now come on inside, lets go tell everyone the good news." She asked, getting up and offering me a hand.

I shook my head in disbelief. "I'm going to be an uncle!" I said with the widest smile Erin had ever seen on my face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_Six months later…_

James walked onto the flight deck of the _Majestic_, the home ship for his fighter squadron: The Black Knights. Two crewmen stopped what they were doing as soon as he stepped through the double doors. I hadn't stepped foot on this deck since the day Amanda died in my arms.

"Carry on" I said.

"Aye, Major." They said; glad to see a familiar face again.

I looked around the cavernous space and saw his fighter being worked on by a mechanic. I walked over and waited for him to finish the spot weld.

"How's she doing?" I asked

"Major! When did you get back? I thought you were on leave." The crewman asked, obviously glad to see me.

"Technically I still am. I thought I would come back and see how everybody was. I was going to go and request the admiral that I'd be returned to duty later on."

"Admiral on deck!" someone announced.

"Looks like he's found me." I said in a lowered tone.

"What are you doing here James? You are still on leave." Admiral Robert Matthews said in a casual tone.

"Yeah, about that…" I said getting cut off in mid sentence.

"We'll deal with that later, now, I need to have a word with you in private, your office?"

I pointed to the squad briefing room and what passed for an office. Once inside the tiny room, which consisted of a small desk, a bookshelf and a small couch in the corner, Robert helped himself and walked over to the replicator.

"Two beers, bottled." He requested

"Sir? Aren't you on duty?" I asked, surprised at his choice in beverage, and grabbed the bottle that he was handing me.

"Being an Admiral has its perks, I get to set my own schedule, and besides, the ships still in dry-dock." He said with a wry smile on his face.

"Congratulations by the way, you're like what?" I said taking a drink of my beer. "The 5th youngest admiral in Starfleet?"

"4th, now, let's get to the point. You have no idea how many people have been knocking down my door looking to get their hands on you. You've turned down a lot of promotion offers. It's causing me a lot of headaches."

"Yeah, I know. I have my reasons." I said in response.

"Some of these posts are dream jobs," Robert said, producing a padd out of nowhere. "Teaching at the academy is a great honour, not many officers get to do that. And what about this one, a Captain Renolds is offering you first officer…" Robert said with that same wry smile on his face.

"That one's new. Lemme see that." I said taking the padd from his hand. The name Renolds rang a bell.

"What is it?" Robert asked.

"Remember the retreat from Chintocka?"

"How could I forget? That was a dark day. We lost a lot of good people. Your entire squadron was awarded the Silver Star if I remember correctly."

"Yeah, but we got that medal because we protected the USS Liberty. Captain Renolds was the first officer on that ship. We met briefly on Deep Space Nine afterwards."

"Really?" Robert said raising one eyebrow, which freaked James out a bit, because it made him look like a Vulcan when he did it. "You should take it."

"Sir, Is that an order?" I asked honestly.

"It can if you want it too; and you turning down these offers cause me a lot of paper work. And you know how much I hate paper work."

"You didn't have to accept the promotion." I said with a cocky smile on my face.

"Shut up, and that IS an order."

I sat there, giving the idea some serious thought. The move would be good for my career, and it would be a welcome change of pace. The idea of transferring to command had crossed my mind on several occasions. I took a long swig of my beer. "Alright, I'll take it." I said making up my mind.

"Good, because I thought I would have to order you. I've already accepted the offer on your behalf."

"You what!" I exclaimed, almost spitting out my beer. Robert just laughed.

"I told you, I hate paper work. Now, I know you're still on leave, and you're about to have it extended."

"Why's that?" I inquired.

"You are to ship out to your new posting on the USS _Divination_ at the end of the week. Right now, the _Divination_ is currently in the Risa system on shore leave, something about the crew needing it, but oddly enough it's also the Captain's wedding anniversary, go figure. Personally, I think he pulled some strings with the brass for that. Anyways, when you arrive, they're still going to be on leave. Have you ever been to Risa?"

"Twice, take a look at the photo on my desk." I said as Robert picked up the photo.

"I know that's you, Amanda and Matthew, but who's the other woman with Matthew?"

"That would be Amanda's sister, Erin. She was Matthew's fiancée. They were going to get married after the war. She's six months pregnant."

"That's wonderful news. Well, I got to get going; wife's going to have my head if I'm not back soon for dinner. I'll talk to you later." Robert said, walking out of the office at a brisk pace.

"Guess he wasn't kidding about his wife." I said, chuckling to myself. I leaned back in my chair and let out a breath of air. "Well, guess I got some studying to do. Computer, call up information of a ship for me, The USS _Divination_."

"Working, the _Divination_ is an Akira-class vessel, Commanded by Captain Jonathan Renolds…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Captain Jonathan Renolds sat in the Risan sun, basking in its warmth, watching his son Andrew build a sand castle with his mother a few feet away while reading a hard copy novel.

"Captain Renolds, there's a message for you from the _Divination_." A male attendant informed him.

"Oh, this better be good." Jon said getting up, and motioning to his wife Lindsey that he'll be right back. He got to the small building on the beach's tree line and walked up to a console where a familiar face appeared. It was his chief of operations, a young ensign named Peter Golden.

"Sorry to disturb you sir, but you have a message from an Admiral Matthews. He wants to speak with you, says it's urgent." He said.

"Patch it through. Admiral Matthews, good to see you. Any reason you're contacting me on my vacation?" He said, putting emphasis on vacation.

"Sorry to bug you captain, but I got some good news. I convinced Major Soul to accept your offer. Just thought I should let you know that he's on his way now. He should be in system in a few hours."

"Few hours? Think you could have given me some heads up?" Jon said with an annoyed tone.

"I apologise Captain…" Robert said just as someone in the background cut him off.

"Robbie! Dinner!"

"Sorry, the battle axe calls, Enjoy your vacation Captain. Matthews out." He said, as a Starfleet insignia replaced his face. Jon brought his hand to his face and let out a sigh and then walked back to where Lindsey and Andrew were.

"Hun, what was it?" Lindsey asked

"That was Admiral Matthews, he just thought that he should let me know that my new first officer was on his way and will be in system in a few hours. I got to head back to the ship." He told her.

"Think they could have given you a little heads up?" She said, almost reading her husbands mind.

"That's what I said. Anyways, sorry about leaving you two here, but I've got to go. I'll see you at dinner." He said, picking up his book. He bent over to give his wife and son a kiss and stepped off to the side and tapped his comm. badge. "Renolds to _Divination_, One to beam up."

The beautiful beach faded away in shimmering blue light to be replaced a few seconds later by the dull metallic grey of a transporter room.

"Welcome back Captain." said the young female transporter chief.

"Thank you. Ensign Langley, how's it going?" He asked.

"Fine sir. Looking forward to the end of my shift, Crewman Michaels thinks he can beat me at Spring Ball."

"Good luck." Jon said, giving a nod and walked out of the room towards the turbo lift. "Deck three."

Once off the lift, he walked down towards his quarters, getting nods from crewman on his way. While Jonathan thought that keeping a professional distance from his crew was a good idea, he didn't think that meant that he had to be a hermit in his office. He made a point to be well known by the crew. In fact, he was quite popular with them, especially with the Security department, having come up through the ranks in that department himself.

Jonathan walked into his quarters and quickly got into the sonic shower to get the salt-water residue off him, then got dressed in his Uniform and made his way to the bridge.

"Lieutenant Valco, no doubt you heard about how our new first officer is on his way, do you know what ship he's coming in on?" He asked his Chief of Security, a young woman named Halee Valco.

"I have sir; Major James Soul is on a civilian cargo freighter called the Soul Refrain. They just entered the system. Do you want me to hail them?" She asked. He gave a nod. A moment later, a woman in her early thirties appeared on screen.

"Good day Captain, I'm Kaydance Soul Mican, Captain of the _Soul Refrain_." She said.

"Good day to you too, Captain. Is Major Soul present?" Then something dawned on him.

"You're thinking correctly Captain, James is my kid brother, and yes, he is."

"Hello Captain." James quickly said.

"Its good to meet you Major. When can you beam aboard?"

"Actually, Captain, I would like to come on board via shuttle craft." James requested.

"Shuttle craft?" Renolds asked, just a little bit puzzled.

"James brought his toy with him." Kaydance quickly shot in with a smile on her face.

"It is not a toy." James said to his sister, sounding a bit annoyed, almost as if his pride was hurt.

"Alright, I'll meet you in the shuttle bay then. See you in a little bit, _Divination_ out."

Captain Renolds waited in the shuttle bay and watched as the outer double doors for the hanger slide open and the small craft made its approach.

"Wow, a Dagger-class fighter, now I get where that toy remark came from." Halee said; who had come with the Captain to greet the new first officer. "I didn't know our new XO was a fighter Pilot."

"He's a damn good one, highly decorated too, one of the best that the Starfleet Marine Corps has had in a long time. I had to pull some strings to get him assigned here. And I owe him. If it wasn't for his squadron during the war, I, and a lot of other people wouldn't be alive today." Renolds said in response.

"He's cute too." Halee said to herself.

"What was that?" Renolds asked.

"Nothing sir." Halee said quickly, her face turning a light shade of red.

They both walked over to the fighter as the hanger crew rushed a ladder up to the cockpit. James climbed out and proceeded down the ladder. He took off his helmet and undid the top of his flight suit.

"Fine craft you got there." Renolds said, extending a hand for a handshake. "This is Halee Valco, Chief of Security and my Second Officer."

"Pleasure to meet you, sir." She said with a smile on her face.

"Pleasures all mine." James responded, shaking her hand and returning the smile.

"Alright then, I'll let you get settled in and you can meet me in my office." The Captain said. "Lieutenant, if you would show the Major to his Quarters."

"Aye sir, this way Major." She said, making her way out of the hanger.

"Just a second, I have to get something." James said as he walked over to a small compartment on the underside of his fighter, he opened it. On the inside was a small suitcase, and two phaser rifles that were obviously modified. James grabbed the case and closed and locked the compartment.

"Enough fire power?" Halee said, crossing her arms, looking somewhat impressed. I just smiled like a kid in a candy store. "Ok, if you would come this way."

We walked down the corridor, which had dull metallic grey bulkheads and blue carpet.

"So, what do you think of the _Divination_?" Halee Asked.

"It's small." I said in response.

"Small?" she said with her head cocked to one side, causing her shoulder length brown hair to dangle down.

"My last ship was a modified Sovereign-class ship that was designed to carry two fighter squadrons."

"Ok, I see where you're coming from." She said as we walked on to the turbo lift. "Deck Three."

The ride was quiet, but thankfully short, one of the benefits of a small ship James guessed. Once off, we walked down the corridor and finally got to my door.

"This is your quarters, the captain and his family are two doors down, and my quarters are just after that." She said as she entered in her command code into the door panel to open it. James walked into the center of the room, and looked around. He had smaller quarters on the _Majestic_, it might take a bit to get used to a larger room.

"You can come in if you like, Lieutenant."

"Call me Halee; everyone does, except the raw recruits."

"Sorry, The Corps was a little bit more formal." He sat the case he grabbed down on the table and took out the spare uniform he packed along with some pictures of his family and friends.

"If you'll excuse me for just a second." James said walking into the adjoining room to get changed.

Halee walked over to the case and picked up one of the photos. It was of James, Amanda, Matthew and Erin the last time there were on Risa. Halee was startled by a hand reaching into the case grabbing a small box.

"I'm sorry sir, I was just…"

"Curious? Its ok, I don't mind." James said taking out a small silver oak leaf, the rank insignia for a Marine Major, and attached it his collar. "I'm sorry if I scared you. I did some deep cover work during the war. Old habits die hard."

"I'm ok, not many people can sneak up on me." She said. She stopped for a moment then asked a question. "Can I ask who's in that picture?"

"Yeah, that's my brother Matthew, his fiancée Erin, her sister Amanda, and me." I said taking the picture from her. I touched the face of Amanda and sat it down on the table. "It was the last photo taken of us when we were all together. Amanda and Matthew were both killed in action."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." She said, feeling bad about asking.

"It's ok; now, I have to meet with the captain." James said, breaking the small silence.

"Yeah, I've got to get back to my station."

They both walked out and made their way back to the bridge. Halee walked up to the security station and sat down. James stopped and looked around.

"The Captains office is through that door." Halee said pointing to the door just left of the view screen. There was some small chuckling from some of the other bridge crew, but a cold stare from Halee put a stop to it.

"Thanks." He said walking up to the door and pressing the door chime.

"Come in." said a voice that came from inside. James walked in and saw the captain sitting on a couch reading an old-fashioned hard cover book. "Ah, Major, have a seat." He said, motioning to the chair in front of his desk, while getting up and moving to his chair on the other side.

"I just wanted to let you know that everything's has been sorted out, your transfer to Command has been approved and you are now officially assigned to the _Divination_. There is just one more thing to take care of." Renolds said as he got up and walked over to the replicator and pressed a few buttons. With a small hum and flash of blue light and he walked back to his desk with a small box in hand. "By order of Starfleet command, I hereby promote you to the rank of Full Commander with all the rights and privileges therein. Congratulations." He said, handing the box to me. I open it to see three small pips inside.

"Stop by the quartermaster to pick up new uniforms. Do you have any questions?" Renolds asked.

"Not really, but on the way here, I noticed that the crew seemed pretty casual, especially on the bridge. I'm not really used to that." James said in response.

"I would have guessed as much, since you're a marine, you must be used to a pretty formal atmosphere. That's most likely my fault; I don't keep the same professional distance from my crew as other captains do. Anyways, I was meaning to ask, do you have any dinner plans this evening?"

"Not really, I was just going to be doing some unpacking then stop by the mess hall for some dinner."

"Well, cancel them; you're having dinner with my family tonight. I think my wife would want to meet the man who saved my life."

"I'm honoured, sir, but about that. I was only doing my job."

"Well, that may be true, but if you and your colleagues didn't have to do what you did. You were ordered to retreat with the rest of the fleet that day. You saved a lot of lives. Drop by my quarters at 1930."

"I'll be there."

"Ok, now, its time to introduce you to the rest of the bridge crew." Renolds said walking out onto the bridge. James was met with a small round of applause.

"This is Ensign Marion Andrews, Flight operations officer." Renolds introduced.

"That was a nice landing you made, hands on too, not bad." She said, getting a firm handshake from the fellow pilot.

"Lieutenant Commander Amber Fox is our Chief Science officer." That name rang a bell in James' mind. Amber was Erin's friend during the academy and they had hung out on a couple of occasions. She was capable of drinking any marine under the table, and played a mean hand of poker.

"It's good to see you again James. Maybe we can meet up later, catch up on old times?" She said, shaking my hand.

"I'd like that."

"You two know each other?" Renolds asked.

"We were in the same academy class." I answered.

"Interesting; now, you've met Halee, and last but not least, this is Ensign Peter Golden, our Chief Operations officer."

"It's good to meet you sir, I look forward to working with you." Peter said, shaking my hand.

"Now, there are only two more senior officers you need to meet, I'm sure you'll meet up with our chief engineer later, but now, you have an appointment with our Doctor." The Captain said, reminding me of it. It is Starfleet regulations that all new officers report to Medical for a physical.

"I know, I know, I was planning on going there later on. But I guess I'll go right now." I decided, and I made my way onto the turbo lift.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

I stepped out of my quarters wearing the new uniform that I had picked up from the quartermaster, a short chubby Bolian. I was starting to get more and more recognition from the crew now that word has spread around that their new XO was on board. Some of them gave me nods or simple 'Commander' greetings. I guess I'm going to have to get to know these people better fast. I thought to myself as I made my way to the turbo lift.

"Sickbay" I said as I entered the lift.

"Hold the lift!" someone yelled, and I quickly stuck my hand out in between the closing doors to stop them.

"Thank you so much, thought I would have to wait for the next one." The young woman said; who couldn't be any older then nineteen, obviously fresh out of the academy. She wore a blue tunic, signifying that she worked in Medical or the Sciences, had long brown hair tied up in the back in a simple pony tail, and little orange freckles dotted her cheeks. Once she stepped onto the lift her face went pale as soon as she realized that she was had just ran into a senior officer. Yep, she's green. I thought to myself.

"Sorry to bother you sir." She quickly stammered out.

"Don't worry about it. I'm James Soul, the new XO." I said, offering my hand for a handshake, which she sheepishly accepted

"Lizzie Erickson… I mean Elizabeth Erickson. Everyone calls me Lizzie, sorry." She spat out quickly, continuing to show how nervous she was.

"It's alright. Nice to meet you, where are you in a rush to get too?" I inquired.

"To be honest, I'm a few minutes late for my first shift in sickbay, I'm a medical student, and I'm on my field rotation. I just got on the ship two days ago, and I haven't gotten the run of it yet."

"I know the feeling, if you think this ship is bad, my first assignment was on a space station; I just got here too, today, actually. In fact, I was on my too sickbay as well, and I'm running a bit late myself." I said. She let out a nervous laugh and started to bite the tip of her thumb.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Tell you what, since we're both new here, I'll try and cover for you." I offered.

"You will!" She said, with a relieved smile on her face.

"One time only, next time, try and be early for your shifts, ok?"

"I will sir, thank you sir." She said, just as the turbo lift came to a halt and we walked out onto the corridor towards Sickbay. I let Lizzie enter first.

"Ensign Erickson, you are late for your shift." The doctor said almost a millisecond after she entered, not even looking up from what he was doing. He had a very thick English accent, was a bit on the short side, only coming up to my chest in height, making him about five feet tall. His hair was balding and starting to show signs of grey.

"I'm sorry sir, I was…"

"Actually it's my fault Doctor, She ran into me in the corridor, I kept her up." I interrupted, keeping my word. The man looked at me, then looked at Lizzie, then back at me, then raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, Ensign, do try to be on time. Weather or not you are punctual could mean the difference between life and death for one of your patients someday; and you, Commander, should set the example and not be late for your physicals. Now get up on the bio-bed." He ordered, and I did as I was asked. I looked over the Doctors shoulder, and saw Lizzie mouth the words 'Thank you', and disappeared around the corner.

"I'm sorry, but I haven't gotten your name."

"I'm Dr. Marcus Payne." He stated, scanning me with a medical tricorder.

"That's quite the name for a doctor to have." I joked.

"I've been a doctor for over twenty years, and believe me, that joke is old, dead and buried." He said in a very serious tone. "Please lay down."

As I lay down, he tapped a control and the bio-bed's scanner equipment folded overtop of me, and started to emit a low hum.

"Hmmm…" the doctor said after a while.

"What is it?" I asked

"I'm sorry, but I don't know quite how to put this."

"What is it?" I asked again, starting to get concerned.

"You, good sir, are in perfect health." He said quickly, tapping a control to open the bed so I could get up.

"Oh, Ha ha." I said sarcastically.

"You made the joke about my name. Eye for an eye." He said with a smile on his face. "Now scoot, I've got my hands full. I have to teach a wet behind the ears ensign so that she doesn't kill the next patient that comes in here. Have a good day, Commander." He said, walking off around the corner.

"Well, I guess I might as well go and unpack my room." I sighed as I made my way out into the corridor. Several of the crew stop me to say hello, some of them were wearing civilian clothing, and I just guessed that they had just gotten back from the planet below. I got onto the turbo lift alone and made it to my quarters and fell down onto the couch and let out a sigh. Looking off into the corner I saw that they had transported my belongings to my quarters already.

"I hope nothing got broken." I said to myself, as I set to work, as I set to work.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Calm down! This isn't the first time that you've had dinner with a senior officer. Then again, Robert's wife was… touched. What does he see in her? That's beside the point, just ring the bell already; you're standing out here most likely making a fool of yourself.

After a quick look over my shoulders, I rang the bell, and a few moments later, a small child, around nine or ten years old. He had short brown hair and blue eyes, much like his father.

"Mom! Mr. Soul is here!" he said, walking off, leaving me alone in the doorway.

"Come on in, dinner's almost ready." A female voice said from the kitchenette that was just out of sight. The smell of real cooking food wafted through my nose, something that I haven't had in a long time.

"Ah, James, good to see you could make it, have a seat." Jon said motioning to one of the chairs around the small table. I sat down and the child that met me at the door sat next to me. "James, this is my wife Lindsey, and my son Andrew."

"It's nice to finally meet you, Commander." Lindsey said, bringing in what we were going to eat.

"That smells delicious." I said, looking at the food. "What is it?" I finally asked.

"It's Mexican food, an old recipe in Lindsey's family. It's called 'Nacho Chilli Casserole'." Jon explained.

"There's not really much too it, it's only tortia chips, chilli with shredded cheddar cheese on top, then you bake it." Lindsey explained further, dishing out the meal. "How long have you been in Starfleet James?" she asked.

"Well, counting my days in the academy, six years." I said, taking a bite of the food, not knowing what it was going to taste like. "Wow, this is pretty good."

"Thank you, its not the best meal, I would have had something better, but you got here on such short notice, and this is the quickest thing that I could make." Lindsey said sounding a bit disappointed with the meal.

"Don't think too much of it, I served directly under Admiral Matthews during the war. He's known to do things like this. This is really good; can I get the recipe? My sister is always looking for new stuff to cook." I asked.

"Sure, I'll put it on a padd for you after dinner."

"My dad says that you're a fighter pilot." Andrew said out of nowhere.

"That's right, I am. I come from a whole family of pilots."

"That's cool; I want to learn how to fly things."

"Well, it takes a special kind of person to become a good pilot. James has been flying since he was as young as you are Andrew." Jon said to his son. "Maybe someday James could teach you."

"Really!" Andrew said with his eye's lighting up. Then he looked at me.

"When you're older, ok?" I said, patting his shoulder.

"Ok." He said, kind of disappointed, and he returned to eating his meal.

"So, do you have any plans to do anything on Risa?" Lindsey asked.

"I do. This isn't the first time I've been here. I have to deliver some news to some friends who live on the planet." I told her.

"Oh?" she said, sounding interested in what that news was. I stopped eating and took a sip of my drink.

"I have to tell them that two of their friends were killed in the war." I said solemnly. I took another drink and returned to my dinner.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"It's alright. You didn't know." I said, forcing a half smile onto my face. _Yeah, it's 'alright'. Keep telling yourself that. It was only your brother and the women you were in love with._ I thought to myself. The meal was pretty quiet after that, with Andrew asking questions about me.

"Thank you very much for the meal, but I've got to get going." I said helping to clear the table.

"Why don't you stay a bit?" Jon asked.

"I'd like to, but I still got to get stuff unpacked, and I'm still tired from my trip here."

"Alright then, it was nice to meet you James." Lindsey said.

"It was nice to meet you too. Have a good night." I said. I nodded to the captain and left their quarters. I walked down the short distance towards my quarters looking at my feet, not really thinking about anything. Once inside, I leaned up against the doors and let out a loud sigh and rubbed my eyes. It had been thirty-two hours since I last slept, so I just got changed and collapsed onto my bed and fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

_"I got one on my tail, I can't sh…" Knight three said just before his fighter burst into flames_

_"Knight three's gone, and I got the same guy on my six, I can't shake him! Its like he's got a leash on me or something!" Matthew reported in._

_"Hold on, we're coming. Knights five, six, converge on knight four. Knight two, let's go!" As the four fighters rushed to Matthew's aid, he was doing his best to try and shake I him._

_"Damn, where did this guy come from?" Matthew complained._

_Just then, the enemy on his tail scored a glancing hit on his left wing, weakening the shields and damaging some of the power distribution systems in that section. _

_"Um, James, where the hell are you?" His response was a bright flash behind him and flaming debris flying past his cockpit window._

_"You're lucky we have the same mother. I want you to get back to the Majestic; you're in no condition to fight." I ordered._

_"Yeah, yeah. I hear you. Oh my god!" Matthew exclaimed. What he saw was an Akira-class star ship take five direct hits to the star drive section, causing one third of the ship to explode and fly violently off course, directly at the five knights._

_"KNIGHTS, SCRABLE!" I screamed into my head set. James moved just out of the way to see the flaming hulk of the once noble Starfleet ship fly past his cockpit window, and clip the right wing of Matthew's fighter, causing it to spin, and fly right into the nacelle of the destroyed ship. _

_"MATTHEW, NOOOOO! God no…"_

I sat up in bed in bed, waking up in a cold sweat and breathing heavily.

"Computer, what time is it?" I asked.

"0234 hours." The computer responded.

"Damn…" I exclaimed quietly, getting up and putting on some clothes. I knew I wasn't going to be getting any sleep tonight. I walked out of my quarters towards the turbo lift. It was the ship's night, so the corridors were mostly empty. "Mess hall." I asked the turbo lift computer. Once I walked through the doors, it was empty as I expected it to be, so I got a coffee from the replicator and took a seat near one of the windows. Before me was a stunning view of Risa below. It was a mix of greens and blues with little tufts of white clouds here and there. I didn't notice the doors open and someone walk up behind me.

"You alright, James?" A woman asked. I turned around to see Amber standing there with a cup of coffee in one hand and a few padds in the other. She was still in her uniform, so I guessed that she hadn't slept yet.

"Couldn't sleep; Bad dream. Came down here to relax a bit. What about you?" I asked

"I was in the lab all night working on something, trying to tire myself out so that I can get some sleep. I have to pull night duty on the bridge tonight, and you know me, I've always been a night owl."

"That's true. Have you talked with Erin recently? I haven't had the chance to talk to her since she shipped out to the_ Keewatin_."

"Just the other day actually; she's very pregnant, and doing well. Her doctor is saying that the baby is healthy and will be running around in a few months time. She's doing well." She told me. "So, tell me. What's it like to know you're going to be an Uncle?" Amber asked.

"I'm happy about it. My parents are the ones who are getting all excited about it."

"I know what that's like. My parents got the same way when my brother had his kids." She said, agreeing with what I said. "You going down to Risa later today?" she asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Yeah, I have some friends down there who still haven't heard the news about Amanda and Matthew. I might go and do some skydiving after that." I explained.

"That sounds like fun. Wish I could join you."

"You're afraid of heights Amber." I said, confronting her.

"I am not!" she exclaimed, nearly spitting out the coffee that she had in her mouth.

"Really, so it wasn't you who passed out when I took you up on my father's bi-plane that summer we went to Edmonton."

"Shut up." She said, taking another drink from her coffee. She looked at one of her padds for the time. "Well, the test I was running should be finished by now. I'll talk to you later." She said, as she got up and walked out the door. I just sat there for next few hours staring out the window. It wasn't until I noticed that crewmembers were coming into the mess hall for their breakfast how early it was getting. I took a drink from my coffee, which had gone cold long ago. As stood up to leave, one of them walked over to me.

"Good morning commander." Lizzie Erickson said.

"Morning, ensign."

"Sir, I just wanted to thank you again for yesterday."

"Don't worry about it." I said, stifling a yawn.

"Late night?" she asked.

"Early morning actually, couldn't sleep. Anyways, I got to get going. Have a good day ensign." I said, and I left the mess hall.

Lizzie went and sat down with her some of the crewmen she worked with.

"You're pretty friendly with the XO, Lizzie." One of them said.

"I bumped into him yesterday on the way to sickbay." Lizzie explained. "I wonder what's eating at him though, when I walked in he looked pretty distant."

"I might know the answer to that." Another crewman said. "I was a medic on the _Majestic_, his last posting. During the war, he was the CO of a fighter squadron. During the last battle, his squad was hit pretty hard. They lost five people that day, the first time they had ever lost anyone in battle. His brother and his Wingman were killed in action. The three of them were very close; they all went to the academy together." He explained.

"My God, that's terrible." Lizzie said.

"Word of advice, Ensign; unless he brings it up, don't talk about it."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Halee walked out her quarters, stretched and cracked her neck. Then she noticed James walking towards the turbo lift and ran to catch up with him.

"Good morning commander, going planet side?" she said, looking at the blue hula-shirt I was wearing.

"I'm meeting up with some friends. This isn't the first time I've been to Risa." I said as we both got onto the turbo lift. "Transporter room one. I take it you're going too?" I said. It was kind of obvious, she was wearing a blue one piece swimsuit with a yellow flower print shall around her waist. She just smiled at the rhetorical question.

"So, what are you going to be doing today?" She asked.

"I was planning on doing some flying. My sister's husband owns a small piece of land on the northern continent. He's a Risan, and owns a mining company that operates in the Risa system's asteroid belt. They have a house there, and a small flight strip for flying old-fashioned aircraft. I have a replica of an old Bi-Plane there that I built before I joined the academy."

"Sounds like fun." She said sounding interested.

"Ever flown in an open canopy aircraft Lieutenant?" I asked.

"Can't really say I have, actually."

"Do you want too?"

"I'd like that. Didn't really have much else planned but swimming." She said as we got off the turbo lift and walked into the transporter room that was close by.

"Commander, Lieutenant, where will you be going today?" Asked Ensign Samantha Langley.

"Here." I said, stepping up beside her and punching in the coordinates, and then I hopped up on to the transporter pad next to Halee. "Energize."

The dull metallic grey of the transporter room faded away into a blue light as the transporter disassembled our molecules, beamed them down to the surface of the planet, and reassembled them exactly as they were. Just the thought of it sent chills down my spine.

"James!" A man called out of nowhere and came running up to greet us.

"Joss! Man, it's been ages, how are you old man?" I asked.

"This old man can still beat you at spring ball, young'n. Now, what do we have here? You always travel in the company of beautiful young ladies?" Said Joss, walking up and greeting Halee.

"Joss, this is Lieutenant Halee Valco, Chief of Security of the _Divination_." I said.

"It's nice to meet you Joss." Halee said, shaking the old man's hand.

"Halee, I have to talk with Joss in private for a moment. Get something from the bar; have them put it on my tab."

"James, you know you and your friend's money is no good here. Kou! Fix the young lady up with what ever she wants." Joss said as he and James took a table off in the corner.

"Sure thing, boss. Now, what can I get you?" The bartender asked.

"Umm… Do you have lemonade?" Halee asked, and before she knew it, there was a fresh glass of lemonade in front of her. "Thank you."

"How long have you known James?" Kou asked, drying an empty glass.

"I just met him yesterday actually." She answered.

"Well, he's a good man. He saved my life once." He said, putting the glass down and moving on to the next one. Halee raised her eyebrows as if to ask what he meant since she was taking a drink from her lemonade.

"Eight years ago, James, his brother and two of his friends were enjoying themselves here in the bar. I was a cook in the kitchen back then. One of the cooking units overloaded and then exploded, causing a large fire, which spread quickly. I was trapped in the kitchen by a wall of fire and couldn't get out. His brother Matthew and his friend Erin got everyone out of the main bar to safety, while James and Amanda rushed into the back room to get everyone else out. James carried me out of the kitchen that night through back door. Since then, the four of them have been our friends." Kou explained. Halee looked off to the table where Joss and James were sitting. Joss looked like he had been given some bad news. She put her glass down when the two of them started walking back towards the bar.

"Come on Halee, we have to charter a transport. I'll see to you later Kou, might drop by for a drink." James said as Halee got up after saying good-bye to the friendly bartender. As they walked to the transport terminal down the street, Halee took a look over shoulder to see the old man consoling the Kou behind the bar.

"James, Kou told me what you did for them. That was very brave of you." Halee remarked.

"We were young back then. It was our senior year in the academy. When the fire broke out, our training kicked in." I said in response. "When we got back to the academy, and our instructors heard what we did, I think they gave us all 'Brownie Points' as Erin put it."

"You say that, but I don't think I could have done what you did. It takes a special sort of person to run into a burning building."

"Thank you." I replied.

"Can I ask you something?" Halee asked.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Why are you taking me on this little trip?"

"I don't know, spur of the moment I guess, I was just going to be doing some skydiving, but you caught me on the way to the turbo lift. And you've never really seen Risa till you've seen it from the air."

After that we both got on the small transport that took me to my brother-in-law's estate. We both made small talk; I asked some questions about life on the _Divination_, and who my predecessor was.

"Yeah, David Forester was… interesting to say the least." She said, getting a curious look out of me. "During the beginning of his career, he had a run in with a "Q". Well, more like his boot had a run in with the Q's head. As punishment, that Q thought it would be funny to turn his outside looks into a humanoid fox. He had the temperament and the mannerisms to match too. But he was a nice guy though. He got promoted and given the command of the _Endurance_ I think." She explained.

"You're right, he does sound interesting..." James said just as he was interrupted.

"Excuse me, sir, we've arrived." The pilot said as he set the small shuttle pod down for a landing. James got out of his chair and paid the pilot, then opened the hatch and got out. He offered Halee his hand to help her out.

"C'mon, let's have some fun." He said with a smile on his face. Halee returned it and took his hand.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

_One week earlier..._

Captain Sandra Gates walked out onto the bridge of the _Antarctic_ and was greeted by the senior officer of the night shift.

"Good morning Captain, all systems are functioning perfectly. We dropped out of warp for an hour last night make minor course corrections around a rogue comet, stellar sciences got some good readings off it, other then that we are presently on course and all systems are functioning normally." the officer said handing her some padds.

"Thank you Lieutenant, have a good rest, see you tonight." she said with a nod.

"Ma'am." he said, returning the nod and walked off the bridge with the rest of the night shift. Sandra started to look over the padds as she took the captains chair. It would be six hours till they reached the Yaxanaar system at warp five where they were to perform a standard astronomical survey of the unexplored region. _Well, this is going to be another boring mission. Sometimes I miss the war. Things were simpler then._ She thought to her self.

"I hope you don't think that all the time." Her Betazoid first officer said as he sat down in the chair next to her.

"Reading my thoughts again?" She said with a wry smile on her face.

"Captain, I'm hurt. I only caught the last part though, surface thoughts are hard to ignore." Commander Raymond Ikar said.

"I was only thinking on how boring this assignment is going to be."

"Well, the _Antarctic_ is a science vessel..."

"I know, I know." she said, cutting him off, who was then cut off herself by an alarm coming from the operations station. "Report." Sandra ordered.

"I don't know ma'am, readings are erratic. One moment, I read a large explosion in a system we passed, and then it disappeared. The explosion had a tachyon signature." the young ensign responded. Sandra looked at her first officer then turned to the helm.

"Change course to the source of the explosion, and increase speed to warp eight." she ordered. "Commander, notify Starfleet command of our situ..." Before she could finish her sentence, the entire ship was enveloped by a blinding white light.

_Present day_

Jonathan Renolds was sitting on the bridge looking over reports, looking up every now and then at the view screen at the beautiful vista of Risa.

"Captain, we're receiving a communiqué from Starfleet command." reported ensign Golden.

"I'll take it in my office, patch it through." He ordered as he got up and walked down towards the double doors of his office and sat down behind his desk and activated his desktop terminal.

"Ah, Admiral Herikawa, how are you Koishi?" Jon asked as he greeted his superior, a Woman in her early forties of Japanese decent.

"Just fine Captain, unfortunately, one of our science vessels isn't. The USS _Antarctic_ disappeared en route to the Yaxanaar system. Deep space observation is showing strange sensor readings in a near by system about six hours out from their destination. That was about a week ago. We think they might have headed in that direction."

"The _Antarctic_? That's Sandra's ship, right?" he asked.

"Yes it is, you're the closest ship in the region, and I'm assigning the _Divination_ to search for her. We're sending you the relevant data now. I'm sorry about cutting your crew's shore leave short. Good luck Captain. Starfleet out." Admiral Koishi Herikawa said as her face was replaced by the insignia of Starfleet Command. Jon sat back in his chair and let out a sigh, then walked back onto the bridge.

"Peter, start contacting the crew who are on the surface. I'm afraid shore leave has been cancelled. Once the rest of the senior staff is aboard, have them report to observation." he ordered as he sat back down in the captain's chair.

"Aye, sir." Peter responded.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Halee was sitting on the veranda of James' sister's state house looking out over the ocean. James walked up and handed her a drink and sat down next to her. The sun was starting to set and the sky was cast in a beautiful orange. Once James sat down, Halee punched his arm.

"Hay! What was that for?" He asked, shaking his arm to get rid of the small pain.

"That's for the barrel roll you did, I haven't been that frightened since my first day of zero-g combat training." She answered.

"I've been flying since I learned how to walk, you were perfectly safe."

"Well, tell that to my stomach." she said, taking a sip of her drink.

"I have a feeling you'll be fine." James said, leaning back on the wall of the house.

Halee stared out over the ocean at the sunset. "I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful sunset. I was born in south Texas, I grew up in a beach front house on the Gulf of Mexico." she said laughing at herself. "I never thought that I would say that." She turned her head in such a way that made James stop for a second.

"What is it?" Halee asked.

"It's nothing, for a moment you reminded me of some one I knew." James said quietly. "Just forget about it."

"Ok... Hey, can I ask you a question?" Halee asked

"You just did." James joked.

"Ha ha. On the plane, 'Karma' was painted on the side, what's that? The name of the plane?"

"Karma's my call-sign I got in the academy. Pilots don't make up their own call-signs, they're given to them. During training I was in a pretty serious crash, I almost died..."

"I thought you've been flying since you learned how to walk." Halee said sarcastically.

"Has I was saying, I almost died. The doctor that treated me was raised Buddhist, he said that I must have good karma to survived. Well, Amanda heard what he said that, and well, I've had the name for about 9 years."

"I like it." Halee admitted. "I was expecting something more..."

"More what?"

"I don't now, macho?"

James was about to respond when his comm-badge that he had in his pocket chirped. "Commander Soul here." he responded.

"Commander, this is Ensign Golden, Something has come up, and the Captain has cancelled shore leave, he's ordering everyone back to the ship and has scheduled a meeting of the senior staff." The young ensign reported.

"Did he give a reason?"

"No sir. Just orders that everyone beam back to the ship."

"Ok, Lieutenant Valco and I will be on our way shortly."

"Lieutenant Val..."

"Soul out." James said cutting him off trying to keep a straight face, but both of them burst out laughing.

"You know, they're going to start talking. The _Divination _has quite the rumour mill on board." Halee mentioned.

"Let them talk, nothing happened. Just two new friends enjoying shore leave. Come on, I got to lock this place up before we get back on board." James said, offering Halee hand to help her up.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Halee and James walked onto the bridge to see that all the senior staff was already in the adjoining observation lounge.

"Wonderful." James muttered to himself because they are the last ones to arrive, then walked through the door and took the seat to the right of the Captain next to someone who he hadn't met before. That person was a middle-aged Japanese woman in her late twenties.

"Commander, you haven't met our Chief Engineer yet, this is Lieutenant Commander Hatoko Kobayashi." Jon introduced.

"Pleased to meet you Commander." she said, shaking his hand. "I hope you don't mind, I had a look over your fighter when you were planet side. Quite the piece of hardware. The modifications are quite impressive."

"Thank you, but the credit really goes to the mechanics on the _Majestic_." James responded with the hint of pride in his voice.

"I actually have some questions about some things, If I could talk to you later." she requested, James nodded.

"Now that introductions are complete, let us get down to business. The USS _Antarctic_ has disappeared en-route to the Yaxanaar system. Deep space observation detected what they think is an explosion with a tachyon signature."

"Tachyons?" Amber said with an inquisitive look on her face.

"I know what you're thinking, and temporal mechanics doesn't know what to make of it. Since we are the nearest ship, Command has dispatched us to search for the _Antarctic_ and investigate the explosion site."

"There is a possibility that we could encounter severe tachyon radiation. I suggest we modify the shields to prevent contamination." Amber suggested.

"That will take a few hours, but it'll be done before we reach our destination" Hatoko stated.

"I'll start working on a treatment for radiation, just in case the modifications aren't enough. No offence Kobayashi-san." Marcus said to the engineer, who just smirked and took a drink from her coffee cup.

"Halee, what do you know of that region of space?" the captain asked. Who quickly thumbed some commands into a padd and looked it over.

"Starfleet doesn't have much at all on that system. It remains largely unexplored except for deep space probes doing preliminary exploration. Other then a few basic star charts, we got nothing."

"Is there anything else to report?" The captain asked his senior staff but got no response. "Very well, Miss Andrews, set course for the _Antarctic_'s last known position, warp seven."

"At that speed, transit time will be two days." Marion reported.

"Very good. Dismissed. Commander Soul, a minute please." Jon said, getting up and looking out the observation window has the ship left orbit and went to warp.

"Sir?" James asked.

"What do you think of this situation?" Jon responded

"Not what I was expecting, but then again, it comes with the job." James said leaning back in his chair. "I'm a soldier not a scientist, time anomalies are a bit beyond me, I admit."

"Don't worry about it, neither am I. That's why we call on the abilities of those under our command. It takes some getting used too and awhile before you develop a command style that works for you. Now, I have some paperwork to do." He said, sitting down in his chair. "You have the bridge commander."

James was caught off guard for a second. "Um. Aye, sir." James said turning around and walking out onto the bridge and stopped in front of the center chair."It won't bite, James." Amber joked. James just smiled and sat down.

"Ensign Golden, what's our status?" I requested.

"We're on course, traveling at warp seven; all systems are functioning within normal parameters."

"Good. Very good." James said nodding, exhaling hard and leaning back in the chair feeling about as nervous as he was when he first tasted combat.

James tapped his finger on the arm rest of the center chair bored out of his skull skimming over the duty rosters for the next day's shifts. There really wasn't much else for him to do while in transit. He'd gotten up and walked the bridge and familiarized himself with all the work stations about twenty minutes ago. Feeling thirsty he got up and got himself a cup of coffee from the replicator at the side of the bridge, turning back he saw the Captain in his chair.

"Captain, when did you get here?" James asked, sounding puzzled.

"Pardon?" said a voice he wasn't expecting in response from the other side of the bridge at the entrance of the Captain's office.

"Wha..? But you..." James stammered out looking back at the center chair which was empty. "When I turned back from the replicator you were in your chair, sir."

"Miss Fox, scan the bridge, leave nothing out." Jonathan ordered.

"Already working on it sir." She said quickly. She raised her eyebrows at the readings she got. "I am picking up tachyons on the bridge, sir."

The captain took his seat and James sat to his right. "Helm, how long till we reach Yaxanaar?" he enquired.

"Approximately thirty-five hours sir." the young Ensign Andrews responded.

"We must be starting to feel the effects of the temporal anomalies. It might be safe to assume that they will get worse as we get closer." Amber said studying the readouts on her terminal.

"Notify the crew, I want all occurrences reported as soon as they happen." The Captain ordered.

"Aye sir." Amber said as she started contacting department heads.

Realizing that he was still standing in front of the replicator, James walked down to his seat to the right of the captain's seat and sipped his coffee.

"Are you alright commander?" Jon asked. "You seem a bit unnerved."

"I'm fine, sir. That was just... weird." James admitted.

"That was scientific." Amber cracked; she still had a smirk on her face when both James and Jon turned around to look at her. "Right, notifying the crew." She quickly spat out.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Lieutenant Commander Hatoko Kobayashi walked through the double doors and walked out into the center of Main Engineering, stopped, stretched, stifled a yawn and put her hands on her hips and looked up at the towering warp core as it pulsated with its tremendous and basked in its soothing blue glow. She was a creature of habit and did this every morning when her shift began.

"Ma'am, what are you doing here? Your shift doesn't start for another… four hours." The young engineer in charge of the night shift told her.

"_Nani_? Its 0700, Lieutenant." She corrected.

"No Ma'am, its half past three in the morning." He said checking the time readout at the console he was at.

Hatoko quickly tapped her comm-badge. "Engineering to bridge. We got a problem."

"So you're telling me its four AM in engineering, and almost half past nine here" Marion Andrews said trying to get her mind around the situation.

"That's not all, I've got patients coming in saying that scars that they've had for years are disappearing, while others are reappearing. Same goes for injuries as well; they just seem to manifest themselves." The doctor reported.

"He's right; I've had a scar from a Jem'Hadar bayonet on my shoulder ever since the battle of AR-834. It's gone now." James said, rubbing his shoulder, tracing the line where the scar used to be.

Jon Renolds stood by the observation window nursing a cup of coffee. He had only gotten four hours sleep when he got called to the bridge. "Well, Amber, it seems you were right. These anomalies seem to getting worse the closer we get." He took another sip of his coffee. "Commander Kobayashi is there any indication that these time distortions are affecting ships systems?" he asked.

"There seems to be some evidence of stress on the ships super structure. I've already compensated by diverting power from minor systems to the structural integrity field."

"How's the crew?" The Captain asked his Chief Medical Officer.

"Well, most of them feel like they haven't slept in days, and from what I've just been told, that may be true, and like I said, some crew's injuries are reappearing. Ensign Samantha Langley was brought in this morning with a wound that could have only come from a Cardassian phaser rifle."

"How is she?" Jon inquired with a hint of concern. Samantha Langley, the ships transporter chief, was one of a few crew members who where assigned to the _Divination_ fresh out of the academy and had served under Captain Renolds their entire Starfleet careers.

"She's stable, its lucky that she was struck on her shoulder."

"The time distortions seem have subsided for now, captain. Time on the ship seems to be returning to normal, give or take a few minutes deck by deck." Amber reported as she read a padd that a science officer handed her and left the room. The captain took another sip from his coffee cup and sat back down at the head of the briefing table.

"Marion, increase speed to warp nine. What ever is going on here, I want to find out what is causing this and how to fix or put an end to it." Jon ordered.

"Aye, sir." She acknowledged.

"Alright, let's get back to work." Said the captain, and with that the senior staff filed out the briefing room and to their stations. James watched the main viewing screen as the stars started to stream past at an increased rate, and involuntarily he started to crack his wrist, and on the quiet bridge, it was loud enough to be heard by everyone.

"Sorry, old habit." He admitted. He was just about to give some explanation when he was interrupted by Peter at the ops station.

"Captain, I'm detecting a vessel half a light-year out. It appears to be adrift, but I can't get a clear reading."

"Is it the _Antarctic?"_ Jon asked.

"Could be, but I can't be sure, sir." The young ensign responded. The captain gave his first officer a glance and nodded.

"Helm, alter course, and slow to impulse once in visual range." James ordered.

"Aye, sir. Changing course, we'll be in visual range in twenty minutes at current speed." Marion stated, and then did her best to hold back a yawn.

"Ensign Andrews, how much sleep did you get?" Jon asked.

"About one and half hours sir, but I've functioned on less." She responded. "I don't know what it is sir, I feel like I haven't slept in a day or two. I haven't been this tired since the war."

"Can't have my helmsman half asleep at her post, you're relieved. Go get some rest."

"Aye sir, Thank you sir." She said, and walked off the bridge.

"Commander Soul, take the helm." The captain ordered.

"Aye, sir." James said a bit too enthusiastically as he got up and took the post. "Computer, load helm configuration Soul-4 from my personal data base." He instructed the computer, who did as it was told with a twiddle-beep.

"Show off." Amber said, disguising it as a cough. James just chuckled to himself and studied the helms read outs.

"Are you two always like this?" Peter asked.

"You should see us when we play poker. You ever play poker with her, Ensign." James asked.

"No, sir…" Peter said, getting cut off in mid sentence.

"Don't. Not unless you like losing a months pay." James warned. Peter tossed a glance at Amber who had an evil half grin on her face.

"We're coming into visual range now, sir. Slowing to three-quarters impulse." James said as he worked the controls with the ease of a seasoned pilot.

"On screen." Jon ordered. The stars on the main viewer were instantly replaced by a small grey object in the center. It was small, but you could easily make out the oblong saucer and the upper sensor pylon of a _Nebula_-class star ship.

"Star ship registry confirmed. It's the USS _Antarctic_, NCC-62547."

"Life signs?" Jon asked

"None sir." Amber reported solemnly.

"Is the vessel functioning?"

"Main power and the primary computer core are both offline, life support and a few other secondary systems are online, blearily." Peter Golden reported. Jonathan paused for a moment then made his choice.

"Commander, move us into transporter range then assemble an away team."

"Aye, sir. Closing to five-hundred kilometres." James reported, and once in position, he got up. "Commander Fox, Lieutenant Valco, you're with me." James ordered as he tapped his comm-badge. "Soul to Main Engineering, Commander Kobayashi report to transporter room one for an away mission with an engineering detail."

Just as the three officers were about to leave the bridge, their captain stopped them. "Good luck." Was all he said. With that they left. In the turbo lift, James leaned up against the back wall, being very quiet.

"What's wrong James? It's not like you to look nervous." Amber asked

"Oh, I'm fine, this isn't the first derelict I've boarded, but then again, this isn't a Jem'Hadar battle ship, and I don't have a squad of fully armed Marines behind me, and something about this doesn't seem right." James said with a serious look on his face, just as the lift came to a halt and the doors slid open. He let the other two leave first. Transporter room one was a short walk from the turbo lift to where Hatoko was waiting with two other engineers. She was adjusting the shoulder strap on her engineering kit when she noticed Halee, Amber and James walk into the room.

"Ok, we're going to beam over to the _Antarctic_ where we are going to split into two groups. Cmdr. Kobayashi, you and your engineering detail will go down to the ships Engineering section and see if you can get the primary computer core online so we can access the ships logs and maybe some of the other systems back online. The rest of us will head to the bridge and other area's of the ship where crew gather to try and figure out what happened. Any questions?" James asked, but got no response. He took a hand phaser and a flash light from the transporter room's weapons locker and got on the transporter pad. "Alright, let's go."

The rest of the group followed suit. "Energize." James ordered, and then room faded into a blue haze and faded away.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

Unsure what the condition that the ship was in, they chose one of the shuttle bays as their transport site. As the transporter effect faded they appeared in pitch blackness.

"Ugh… What is that smell?" Halee asked as she covered her mouth in a futile attempt to cover the smell.

"That's stale air. It's almost like this ship as been here for years." Amber explained as she turned on her flashlight, revealing her face, which had a look of disgust on it as well. She shined it on the three engineers who were already prying a bulkhead panel off. A few moments later, and the shuttle bay illuminated with emergency lighting.

"From the looks of it, this ship's in pretty bad shape due to neglect." Hatoko reported.

"That might explain the smell, and with all the things that are happening, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case." James added. "Go down to engineering and try and get the main computer core back online, we'll head to the bridge. Keep an open com-link at all times, and report anything you find."

"Aye, sir. Miller, Zadler, lets go." Hatoko ordered, and they both headed to the double doors of the shuttle bay and activated the emergency manual release, it opened reluctantly, and they headed to their destination.

"C'mon, let's get going." I said to the two women with me.

"We're on deck twenty-one. Looks like we got a long way to go." Amber said, studying her tri-corder. "Looks like the turbo lift systems are offline as well."

"The Jefferies-tubes would take too long; we can get there by climbing up the turbo lift shaft." Halee suggested.

"Twenty-one decks, Hope you're in shape, Lieutenant." I said making my way down the semi lit corridor and around the corner towards the turbo lift at the other end.

Hatoko kept her eye on the corridor ahead of her with her wrist mounted flashlight on one arm, and her phaser in her other hand when she heard one of the other engineers with her mutter something, she tossed a glance back over her shoulder.

"What is it?" she asked

"Nothing ma'am, it's just that this ship is really giving me the creeps." Lt. J/G Mike Zadler admitted.

"Alright, just try thinking about something else, remember, we're here to do a job. We have to find out what happed to the crew of the _Antarctic_, and if it's any consolation, I'm a little creeped out by this mess too."

"Ma'am, the upper level of main engineering is a deck below us; we can get there faster if we take that Jefferies-tube access hatch there." Ensign Raymond Miller said looking down at his tricorder and pointing to a hatch at about knee height a few feet away.

Hatoko opened the hatch and peered inside with her flash light and fell backwards with fear. Before her was a skeletal corpse with long hair, now in patches at the opening of the hatch, and on the door were scratch marks. Its mouth was wide open, as if the person was screaming. She tapped her comm-badge with a shaky hand.

"Commander?" she said with an equally shaky voice.

"What is it?" James replied, stopping his accent.

"We just found a body, and it looks like it's been here for decades. It looks like she was clawing at a tube hatch when she died." She reported grimly.

"Alright; we can deal with the remains of the crew when we find out more of what went on here. Continue on to main engineering." James responded.

"Aye, sir, Hatoko out." She said with an upset tone in her voice, knowing what she had to do. "Alright, you heard the commander. We have to move her, let's be careful."

They gently pull the body out of the tube and onto the floor of the corridor, where they found what she was trying to get away from. Grasping onto her left ankle was a severed arm, but the spot where it was severed was clean, almost surgical. Hatoko looked at the two other officers with her.

"Ok, now I'm starting to get creeped out." Miller said.

"What the hell happed on this ship?" Zadler asked.

"I don't know, but this woman was running away from something," She said looking at the arm, which resembled no species she'd ever seen before. "But I think we owe it to her to find out. Let's get going." Hatoko said as she crawled into the tube head first.

James wiped the sweat off his forehead and continued to climb up the latter towards the bridge. James looked at the deck marker as he passed it; it said 'Deck 4 – Crew Quarters'.

"I think we should stop here first." James suggested out of the blue.

"Any particular reason?" Amber inquired, looking exhausted.

"Deck four has the majority of the crew quarters, maybe we can find something, and I don't know about you, I'm beat." James said, as he started to pump the manual release on the turbo lift door to open it, and then climbed out on the deck and helped Amber and Halee. The three of them stopped to regain their strength. Halee cracked her neck rather loudly, which caused her to be stared at by her two companions.

"What?" She said defensively. Amber just laughed as she pulled out her tricorder and started taking readings.

"Whoa…" she exclaimed as she started to punch in commands furiously into her tricorder.

"What is it?" James asked quickly.

"Tachyon readings just jumped by a factor of ten."

"Is there any risk of radiation?" Halee asked.

"That's the puzzling thing, I'm not reading any radiation, but I'm still reading tachyons, and these readings aren't like the ones I was getting back on the _Divination_, these are stable."

"Stable? How can that be?" James asked equally puzzled.

"I don't know, but I think we should take a closer look. The readings are coming from the next section in a public lounge."

"Alright, let's go." James decided as he got up and started down the corridor. He pulled his phaser from its holster, not knowing what was going to be around the next bend.

"James, hold up, the readings just spiked again! James!" Amber looked up and he was gone.

James stood in an entirely different corridor, but oddly it seemed familiar to him, but all the feelings of familiarity came to a crashing halt as he looked at the person standing in front of him, his face turning ashen white.

"James! You startled me. What's wrong, you look like you've seen a ghost, and what are you doing in that uniform?" Amanda Harrison asked.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

Amber continued to take readings, trying to figure out what the hell just happed as Halee ran up to the spot where James had disappeared before her eyes. Just then, all the main lights in the corridor flickered to life as main power came back online, and Halee's com-badge chirped.

"Valco here." Halee said, still sounding stunned by what just transpired.

"Halee? Where's James?" Hatoko asked, a tone of worry creeping into her voice.

"Hatoko, James just disappeared right in front of us, are the turbo lifts functioning now?" Amber asked.

"Yes they are."

"Good, I think you should get up here right away, we detected a device that might have caused this, I'll report this to the Captain." Amber said in a commanding tone, but still unsettled by the disappearance of her friend

"Ok, we're on our way. Hatoko out."

"So you're saying that he just disappeared after the tachyon readings you detected spiked?" The captain asked. He was standing in the middle of the bridge looking at the main viewer at an image of three of his senior officers on the bridge of the _Antarctic_.

"Yes sir, and the device we found, it's of obvious alien design. Commander Kobayashi thinks that it's some kind of tachyon pulse generator. It builds up power until it discharges, much like an old fashioned capacitor. It sends out a tachyon wave that could do a number of things." Amber explained.

"Like what?" Jon inquired.

"Until I test it, I don't know; it could be some sort of time travel device, or something completely different. Until I understand it better, I can't think of a way to get James, I mean Commander Soul back."

"Do we have any idea what happened to the crew of the _Antarctic_?"

"We've only found one corpse so far sir, and judging by the state it was in, I'd say the crew we're attacked and boarded by an unknown alien species. The body we found had a severed arm grasping its ankle, and she was desperately trying to get away from it." Halee answered. "We'll know more once we've transferred the ships logs to the _Divination_ for analysis."

"Maybe they will shed some more light on just what happened, and a way to bring back the Commander. Once the logs are transferred over, beam the body you found to sickbay and return to the ship. _Divination_ out." He ordered and sat down in his chair letting out a small sigh of frustration. _What the hell is going on here_? He thought to himself.

"Amanda? What the hell… ahh… my head…" James said as he grabbed his head and doubling over in pain.

"James! What's wrong?" Amanda screamed as she ran to his side just as he passed out. She quickly tapped her comm-badge. "Harrison to Sickbay, medical emergency, deck twelve. Hold on James, I'll get you help."

"I didn't believe it when I was told, but now that I'm here…" Captain Robert Matthews said. "Where's the Major now?" He asked

"Major Soul is in his quarters, sir." Amanda responded. "Captain, he just appeared behind me, looking completely lost, he looked at me, turned three shades of white, and then collapsed on the floor." Marine Captain Amanda Harrison reported to her commanding officer.

"What's his condition doctor?" Robert asked.

"Judging from DNA scans, he _is_ James Soul, but a few years older. I believe the reason he passed out was due to radiation poisoning. His body was saturated with tachyon radiation when he got in here, but it's since dissipated. Right now he's just sleeping and it perfect health." The doctor reported.

"Good. You're excused Doctor, and make no note of this in your logs as per the Temporal Prime Directive, instruct your medical staff to do the same." Captain Matthews ordered.

"Aye sir." The doctor nodded and left sick bay. Robert walked up to the side of the bio-bed.

"'Commander' Soul. Wake up." He said calmly.

James began to open his eyes, his vision was blurred but he could make out two people standing over him. When his vision cleared, he made out Amanda's face and a smile went across his face involuntarily, and her face turned a very light shade of red. It was then that he sat straight up.

"Whoa, slow down, you'll pass out again." Amanda said putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Maj… I mean 'Commander' Soul; do you know where you are?" The Captain asked.

James looked around and immediately recognized his surroundings. "This is the medical bay on the _Majestic._ This makes no sense, last minute I was walking down the corridor on the _Antarctic, _I heard Amber yell something out, then I was here." James explained. Amanda's eye's perked up when she heard the name of their friend.

"Do you know what year it is?" Robert said, asking another question.

"2381." James said with out hesitation.

"I guess that explains the uniform. James, I think you've traveled back in time two years. The year is 2379." Amanda said.

"What month is it?" James asked, rubbing his left temple.

"What for?" Robert asked, sounding a bit confused.

"What _month_ is it?" James asked again.

"It's March 8th." Amanda finally answered.

"Two months till…" James said, stopping in mid sentence and biting his lower lip.

"James, if you know anything that could alter the time line worse then it already is by you just being here, you're under orders to keep it to yourself." Roberts said, cutting in.

"Aye sir. I will." James responded.

"Now commander, how did you get here?"

James scratched the back of his head and began to report how he got here to the best of his knowledge.

"You don't do anything small do you?" Amanda joked. James' expression became slightly depressed. It was taking almost every ounce of his self control not to just blurt out how she died so that he can prevent it.

"So an alien device is how you got here? I don't suppose you know how to get back do you, because we can't really drop everything and head to Yaxanaar. We are in the middle of a war."

"No sir, I know I can't ask you to do that." James responded, now realizing that he might never get back to his own time, and that he might have to relive the next two years of his life.

"James, I'll get the science staff working on this, we'll give it our best." Robert said, putting his hand on James' shoulder, who was now looking blankly at the bulkhead in front of him. "We're on our way to Star base 82 for re-sup…"

"What time is it?" James said, cutting Robert off.

"It's 1735, why?" Robert asked. James gave him a cold stare in response. Robert nodded and tapped his comm-badge.

"Red alert, all hands to battle stations!" Robert commanded as he ran out the door.

"You better get to your station, Magic." James said, calling her by the short form of her sign, "Black Magic Woman". She got it in the academy because she had a thing for mid-twentieth century rock music

"You and I need to talk." She said, concern showing through her voice.

"Later, now get to your station, Captain." James said getting off the bio bed. As soon as he got off, he had to brace himself as the ship rocked violently as the medical staff started flooding into the large sick-bay. Amanda was already out the door.

"James, I don't know where you're supposed to go, but you can't stay here." The chief medical officer said, noticing that he was still here. James knew that the good Doctor was going to get a lot of casualties today. If his memory served him correctly, the _Majestic _was doing its best to fend off four Jem'Hadar raiders alone. They'd make it through, but not before loosing a lot of good people. James always wondered how the Captain was able to get the ship battle ready just in time, now he knew why. James walked out of the sick-bay and out into the corridor. He braced himself up against the wall as an engineering detail ran past him. He stopped and opened up a nearby weapons locker, armed himself and headed to the only place he knew where he wouldn't be noticed, least for a little while, the mess hall. James knew what was going to happen as he charged the power cell on the phaser rifle he just grabbed.

Amanda ran out of the locker room and onto the flight deck after getting into her flight suit as fast as she could. The ship rocked hard and she lost her footing, her helmet falling out of her hand and rolled across the floor. Back on her feet she went to pick it up, but someone beat her too it.

"You alright?" A slightly younger James Soul asked, handing her the helmet she dropped.

"F-fine sir, lets get going." She stammered. She started to climb the ladder of her fighter and slid into her cockpit. Quickly running through the start up sequences, the sleek fighter powered to life as James' voice came over the comm system in her fighter.

"Alright Knights, basic defence routine beta, split into your wing man teams and take your targets. Aim for shield impacts from the _Majestic_'s weapons. Let's kick some ass, Hoo-rah!"

Ten other 'hoo-rah's sounded over the comm as the _Black Knights_ roared out of their hanger bay, Amanda closed up on James' six, taking his lead and headed for the nearest raider and they both started to fire volleys from their pulse phaser cannons.

Taking the lead of the fighters, the _Majestic_ started to pound the raiders with phaser fire. Orange light flashed across Amanda's face as a phaser blast raked across the shields of the raider they were pursuing.

"Magic, let's give them the jackhammer. On three!" James suggested. "Three!"

With almost instantaneous reflexes, both James and Amanda's fighters started barrelling down on the raider, twirling down in perfect unison with an almost beauty to it, pounding the raiders shields with pulse phaser fire and launching two torpedoes at the last second before splitting up and getting way as the raiders hull splintered then exploded in a blazing ball of fire and debris.

"Woo! _Majestic, _scratch one raider." James reported in triumphantly.

"Good job Knight one, keep it up, they just knocked our shields down and sent boarding parties, take those raiders out!" came the voice of the _Majestic'_s operations officer.

"Alright Knights, you heard the man, lets take it too them!" James ordered.

"All hands, prepare to repel boarders!" Thundered over the ships intercom as the intruder alert klaxon started to blare, and just as James remembered, a group of five Jem'Hadar beamed into the empty mess hall. Before they even finished materialized, James tipped over a table and began to open fire. Hearing the phaser fire from the corridor, three security officer bolted into the room, one of them took a blast to the chest and crumpled to the floor, his eyes glassed over with death. With the help of the other two, we easily dispatched the other Jem'Hadar.

"Major, what are you doing here?" One of the security officers asked, confused as hell.

"It's Commander, but never mind that, just follow me." James ordered as he grabbed a knife off one of the dead Jem'Hadar and slid it into his boot.

"Yes sir!" both officers said at once. James looked out the window at the raging battle outside as fighters zipped in every direction. He approached the door on the opposite side of the mess hall and hit the door control to open it and poked his head out. The corridor was empty so he motioned to the men behind him to head out. They proceeded down the corridor and stopped at the next intersection. James poked his head around the corner and saw three Jem'Hadar firing at a group of Marines; one of them noticed James and his group and started to turn as James opened fire. Two well aimed shots to its mid-section put him down. This distraction allowed the Marines to take out the other two.

"Thanks for helping us out… Major?" One of the marines said.

"Don't worry about it Gunnery Sergeant, I'll explain later, we got a job to do. How many more are there on this deck?"

"Alpha squad and Security Team two just reported that this deck is clear, but there are reports of a heavy fire fight in engineering."

"Then we head there; tell Alpha squad and team two to head there, if we don't help them out, this ships done for." James ordered with out hesitation.

"Yes sir!" the gunny sergeant said tapping his comm-badge. "Alpha squad, sec. team two, head to engineering and engage the enemy."

James and the rest of the group, now numbering seven, headed for the turbo lift.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

"Watch your fire! You'll hit the warp core!" The short Vorta screamed at the Jem'Hadar slowly advancing on the Starfleet personal bravely trying to defend the heart of the ship. "The Founders need this ship in one piece!"

"Victory is Life!" the Jem'Hadar all belted out in a thunderous roar. James watched on from a small opening in a Jefferies tube hatch on the second level, below him was the Vorta and his bulldogs. James didn't have a problem with Cardassians or the Breen, in fact, he respected them as adversaries. But the Vorta and Jem'Hadar disgusted him. They existed for only one thing, cannon fodder the 'Founders'. They were unnatural, and the way that they were used went against everything that he had fought and bled for most of his adult life.

James and his men had their chance to ambush them. He looked across the spacious engineering section and he could see Alpha squad poking their head out of another hatch. James made a hand motion for them to wait for a signal, and he slowly made his way out of the hatch and to the edge of the second level. He grabbed the knife that he grabbed earlier and threw it at the Vorta, who had his back towards James.

The knife went into the Vorta's back, severing his spinal column, and he crumbled to the deck, and almost instantaneously, the rest of the teams that gathered to re-enforce the engineering crew opened fire on the Jem'Hadar from the second level. James didn't even have time to raise his rifle to open fire before it was all over. Cheering and cries of thanks could be heard as medics filed in to tend the wounded and dead.

James motioned to the men that came with him out into the corridor, and he began to explain his presence.

"Ok, I bet you're wondering what I'm doing here, especially you, Gunny. I'll explain. I'm not here, you didn't see me. I was _never_ here. This is a direct order from a superior officer and it has to do with the temporal prime directive. Do you understand?"

"Aye sir, we do, but can I ask one question?" The gunny requested.

"What is it?"

"Do we win the war?" the Gunny asked. James heart sunk a bit.

"Yes. We do." James said, then nodded and walked away from them. Gunnery Sergeant Aaron Lewis wouldn't live to see the end of the war, and James knew it.

"Just what the hell were you thinking?" Captain Robert Matthews yelled as he paced back and forth across his office. He had James transported there a few hours after the situation was under control. "You warning us about the attack is bad enough, although I am grateful that you did, but what about the men you were with?"

"I ordered them to keep my presence here to them selves. They'll stay quiet." James said calmly, sitting on one of the couches in the large office. He chuckled to himself. Normally getting yelled at by the Captain would make James uneasy, but this time, oddly, it wasn't affecting him in the slightest.

"You find this funny?" Robert asked, with an annoyed tone.

"No sir. I don't. But I think I should tell you, that nothing I did is going to have any effect on the future. I remember this day pretty clearly, because I lost some of my fellow Marines, and I always wondered how you got the ship ready for an attack mere moments before the ambush. I also heard rumours of some officer helping out in engineering, but disappeared afterward." James explained.

"Well, you're going to have to explain this to Temporal Investigations when we arrive at Star base 82." The captain said, now finally sitting down at his desk. "For the time being, you are going to be confined to your quarters till then. I've already arranged for some. You are not to leave, or talk to any of the crew, is that understood?"

"Aye, sir." James responded. Robert then tapped his comm-badge.

"Transporter room two, energize."

The office faded away in a haze of blue and James was standing in the center of the room he was assigned.

"Lovely, a small cramped room." He mumbled as he went and sat down in a near by chair.

A few hours passed and it was getting closer to early morning. James passed the time reading a book he had been trying to read over the past month, but couldn't find the time when he heard something from the other side of the door of his quarters. James quickly shut the lights down and silently leaned up against the wall next to the door. Few moments later and the door was open and someone walked in. The door closed and James was now standing behind the intruder.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" James asked, pressing a panel on the wall, turning the lights on.

"For Christ's sake James, You scared the hell out of me." Amanda said, holding a hand to her chest, obviously frightened.

"You could be in a lot of trouble if you're caught in here." James warned.

"I know, but you said we could talk later. And don't worry about us getting caught, the Chief of Security owes me a favour, and is running a diagnostic on the security systems in this section, so he had to take them offline for the time being. We have a few hours."

James looked at her face for a moment. Instead of the smiling happy face that was engrained in his memory from the favourite picture of her, he now saw worry, and her eyes looked tired.

"James, what happened?" Amanda asked, knowing exactly what was going through his mind. She knew her friend very well. James swallowed hard before answering.

"I can't tell you." James said, biting the side of his cheek to keep himself from blurting out the truth.

"The hell with the temporal prime directive, James!" Amanda exclaimed in frustration. Then it dawned on her, and it scared her. "I'm going to die, aren't I?"

James stared into her eyes, which were full of fear, and his silence only worsened the situation, because those eyes were now starting to fill with tears. He embraced her in a hug, trying his best to comfort her.

"How?" Amanda asked, still crying into his shoulder. James had her sit down in a chair and he pulled up a small table and sat down in front of her. Leaning towards her, he began to explain the last battle of the war. He got to the part of how Matthew died.

"My god, Erin…" Amanda said and disbelief.

"We lost eight people, and Captain Matthews ordered us to return to the ship. When you made your landing approach, a Cardassian fighter fired on you, and knocked out your propulsion systems and you crash landed on the flight deck." James said; his bottom lip began to quiver. Amanda reached over and put her hands around his.

"I landed as fast as I could and ran to your fighter as the emergency crews were pulling you out of your cockpit. The medic said that you had massive internal injuries from the crash and that he had to get you to sickbay for surgery. Before they left the docking bay, you grabbed my hand and said 'I lo…" James said, barely getting the words out as his composure started to fade away as he started to sob. Amanda reached over and put a finger on his mouth to stop him, and then kissed him.

"I love you; I don't want to live through that again." James said after their lips parted, having made his choice. "I'll think of something. You keep doing your job and leave it up to me."

"Ok, I will. What about you… your younger self?" She asked.

"Don't' worry about him. He'll be ok." James said. "I remember you acting funny around me after today."

Amanda hugged him again and gave him another kiss. "I've got to go." She said getting up.

"I don't think we'll get another chance to talk again for a while, if at all. Just because you know what's going to happen doesn't mean you're not invincible. The days ahead are going to be dangerous." James advised.

"I'll be careful." She said with a smile and a wink and she left the room. James got up and threw himself on the bed and started to laugh. He couldn't remember the last time he felt as happy as he was now. It was as if a great weight was lifted off his shoulders, and he felt relived.

"Well, I've got two months to think of something." James said, thinking aloud.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

James sat down at a table in a café. He looked out the window at the green trees and the blue sky. He was on Earth now; he was living in a small community that Starfleet founded for 'Time Displaced' individuals for about a week now, located in western Canada. The debriefings that he had with Temporal Investigations were more like interrogations. They grilled him for two days straight, and got almost every bit of information that James was willing to tell them.

He had gotten to know a few of the people here, one person stood out from the rest, because he traveled forward in time almost three hundred years, and had been living here for almost fourteen years. He had told James that this community used to be a Canadian Military base called Shilo and how he used to eat at this very café back then.

James took a sip of the coffee he ordered and read today's copy of news report from the _Federation News Service_ when a woman sat down at his table.

"You're James Soul, Commander James Soul?" she asked.

"Yes, who wants to know?" James said taking another sip of his coffee.

"I know what you're planning." The woman said bluntly.

"What?" James asked, wondering what this woman was going on about.

"You want to save that lovely Captain Harrison and your brother from dying. How very heroic of you." She said with a smirk on her face, pulling the padd from James' hand, glancing it over. "The news must be boring to read, considering you already know what's going to happen."

"Who are you?" James asked, now annoyed and starting to get angry. No one knew about what James and Amanda had talked about that night.

"I could be someone who could help you make it happen, or I could just be a person who you talked to on a sunny morning while you were having your coffee. Which one depends on you." She said leaning forward, putting her chin on her hand and scrolled the padd to the sports section.

"You haven't answered my question." James said, taking the padd back.

"All in good time, first you have to do something for us, no questions asked." She said coldly. James thought over his response very carefully. His time was running out, and he still hadn't thought of a plan, which was starting to nag at him.

"Al…" James began to say, but the woman cut her off with a raised hand and looked over her shoulder. Behind her were two Starfleet Security officers talking to the owner of the café.

"I think its best that we head someplace else." She said. "Follow me, and don't look at the officers."

James did as he was told and followed her as she walked away calmly. Judging by her behaviour, James guessed that she had had some training in espionage. _Could be Starfleet Intel, but why would she run from Security._ James thought to himself. The woman, still nameless, turned a corner, and just as James did the same, she was gone, and James was bathed with blue light of a transporter.

"Where am I?" James asked, still confused as to what just happened.

"You're on a cloaked ship in orbit. My name is Tina Robertson, I am with Starfleet Intelligence."

"What does Intel want with me?" James asked bluntly.

"We want you to do something for us, and we know that the only way that you would help us is if we help you." She explained. "As for us knowing about your conversation with your 'sweetheart' is simple. We had an agent on the _Majestic_, and he bugged the room."

"Well, you've got me, now what do you want me to do."

"A simple information gathering mission, that's all. Have you ever heard of a group calling them selves '_The Legion'_?" she asked.

"Vaguely. I know that they are a terrorist group that openly opposed the war, and have since attacked several Starfleet outposts. That's about it."

"Well, they've been responsible for some Intelligence operations failing and the agents involved getting killed by the Dominion. We recently became aware that they are planning to stage an attack on a strategic Star base for an up coming offensive, and they have started recruiting mercenaries. We want you to join them and gather as much information about it as you can, and get out." She said, revealing the plan. "If you do this, Starfleet Intelligence will help you the best it can."

"But what makes you think that I can trust you? I mean, we just ran from Starfleet Security, how do I know you're even from Intel?" James demanded.

"The biggest threat to any Intelligence operative is a well meaning ally." She explained. "I've been in deep cover for the majority of the war, and some of the stuff I've done… were less then legal to say the least."

"So, what Star base are we talking about here?" James asked, somewhat satisfied with her explanation. He still didn't trust her as far as he could throw her, but at the moment, he didn't have much of a choice.

"Star base 93." She answered, and James' eye's opened wide then rubbed his shoulder where an old scar used to be. "What is it?" Tina asked.

"AR-834; the offensive is to re-take a large tritainium mine. It supplies the dominion with materials to build its fleets here in the Alpha Quadrant." James said cringing on the inside as the screams of the men and women he led into combat echoed in his mind. It was a bloody battle, but in the end, it helped lead to the Dominion withdrawal into Cardassian space, and eventually, to the end of the war.

"You already know what happens. Then you know how important this is." She said, crossing her arms and leaning up against a bulkhead. "We already have a cover story set up and all that's left is you getting to know it and a little cosmetic surgery."

James looked into the mirror at his face, and didn't even recognize the man staring back at him. His dirty blonde hair was now jet black, he had a goatee now, which surprisingly looked good, he thought to himself. There were wrinkles under his eyes and a large scar on his left cheek.

"A 'little' cosmetic surgery?" he asked rhetorically, Tina laughed.

"Ok, what's your name?" Tina quizzed.

"Tate Mackenzie. I'm a 'retired' Starfleet officer who now owns a small shipping company."

"Good, nice touch on the sarcasm, what are you going to say when they question you on that?"

"That they gave me the can." James said running a finger along the scar on his cheek with a half smile.

"Seriously now, Commander."

"You actually expect them to believe a pilot admitting pilot error? You people at Intel obviously don't know many pilots. You see, there is this little thing called pride. We have a lot of it. You can through in a little ego too."

"Oh, so now you think you're infallible. You can do no wrong."

"When a pilot makes a mistake, people die; Pure and simple."

"Its either you go with this plan, or we scrub the mission, a lot of Marines die, we turn you over to Temporal Investigations and you get to rot in a six by eight prison cell for conspiracy to change the time line." Tina said with an icy commanding tone, and then her expression became distant. "A very highly skilled operative is in their inner circle. He's already recommended you as a candidate." She said, twisting a ring on her left hand. "When this mission is over, he's to be pulled out. So as you can imagine, Commander, I too have a personal stake in the success of this mission." She said, taking a deep breath to regain her composure. "Now, do we go with this story, or do I drop you off at a prison colony?"

James just sat there, and Tina took his silence as a yes. "Alright, let's go over this again…"


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

"So, Matt, you looking forward to seeing Erin again when we get to SB-93?" Amanda asked before taking a bite of the meal that was before her. Matt, Amanda and James were having lunch in the _Majestic_ mess hall.

"Yeah, I'm worried about her. The _Black Rose_ took heavy casualties when it was ambushed last week; they've been at SB-93 since then for repairs. She seemed pretty distant the last time we spoke. Has she ever acted like that before, Amanda?" he asked, showing genuine concern for his fiancé.

"War changes people, Lieutenant." A different voice said from behind Matthew's back.

"Captain!" all three of the marines said at once, standing up out of respect for their senior officer.

"This seat taken?" Robert asked, pointing to the last vacant seat at the table.

"No sir, go right ahead." James said as all four of them sat back down.

"As I was saying, Lieutenant, war changes people. It's something I've seen happen too many times in my career. Anyways, from the report I read, the _Black Rose_ took severe damage and lost a lot of good people. Their morale is shattered at the moment. My advice to you, is just lend a listening ear."

"Thank you sir." Matthew said, sounding a bit at ease.

"Now, to the reason I'm here. I've just received orders that I'm to temporarily re-assign two of my officers too Generals Lance and Rah'Phon when we arrive at Star Base 93. Major Soul, Captain Harrison, you two are the most experienced for what they need."

"What's the assignment?" James asked.

"Starfleet and the Klingons are planning a ground assault on a Dominion mining facility that supplies their ship building effort here in the Alpha Quadrant. You're both to be assigned squads and will lead them into battle."

"If Lance is in charge of this, we should succeed." Amanda commented.

"You know of him? I haven't met him yet."

"He taught ground tactics at the academy when the three of us were there." Matthew explained. "What role will the rest of the _Knights_ have?" He asked.

"They will be piloting drop ships and providing fighter support for the ground offensive." Robert explained, taking a bite of his meal.

"Captain Matthews to the bridge." Announced the ship wide intercom, and the Captain dropped his fork loudly onto his plate and scowled.

"This better be good. Major, Captain, Lieutenant, enjoy your meals." And he walked out of the mess hall at a brisk pace. James looked over his shoulder out the view port to see the ship slow to impulse and a _Galaxy_-class star ship pull up along the _Majestic'_s port side. He caught the name of the ship to be the USS _Triumph_, and then picked up his napkin and wiped the small bits of the stir fry he was eating and cleared his table.

"That's General Lance's ship. C'mon Amanda, we got to get our gear packed, I have a feeling our ride just came and picked us up.

**- - -**

"General Lance, It's nice to finally meet you. Three of my senior Marine officers speak very highly of you." Captain Matthews said, greeting the General.

"As they should, they'd know better to do otherwise." General Jerry Lance said with a wry smile on his face, but there was something in his tone that had a hint of seriousness. Robert got the impression that one did not want to make this man angry.

"Permission to come aboard, Captain?" The General requested.

"Granted, I'll meet you in…"

"We don't really have time; I'll be beaming directly to your ready room."

"Alright, I'll see you in a few minutes. _Majestic _out."

Captain Matthews let out a sigh, and then walked into his office, and just before he could sit down, the blue glow of the transporter effect filled the room, and the surprisingly short General was standing before him.

"Welcome aboard the _Majestic. _What can we do for you, General?" Robert asked.

"Well, I'm here to pick up Major Soul and Captain Harrison, but before that, Starfleet wants me to take care of something. Has the ranking Starfleet officer in this sector, I obviously can't command both the fleet that is making the assault on the planetary defences and lead the ground forces at the same, so, if you would follow me." The General said, turning around and walking out onto the bridge. Robert's heart skipped a beat. He knew what was about to happen.

"Attention on Deck! Captain Matthews, front and center." Lance ordered, and the crew present snapped to attention. "Captain Robert Emanuel Matthews, by order of Starfleet command, I, Major General Jerry Lance, hereby field promote you to the rank of Commodore, effective immediately. I also turn over Command of Starfleet Taskforce 43 over to you. Congratulations." The General said as applause erupted from the bridge crew. "Here are your orders from Starfleet Command. Good luck Commodore." He said, shaking Robert's hand and turning over a padd. He then paused. "What deck is Major Soul's office?" Lance asked.

"Deck twelve, just off the main hanger bay." Robert answered.

"Thank you." The General said, showing himself off the bridge.

- - -

Lance walked down the corridor towards the main hanger bay and into James' office, finding it empty. He ran his finger across James' desk and inspected it. _Wow, it's actually clean!_ Lance thought to him self, with a small inside chuckle. Looking at the wall next to his desk was a display case that housed James' ceremonial sword and the various medals he'd been awarded during the war. There were two purple hearts and a silver star.

"Can I help you, sir?" James asked, standing in the door way of his office with a duffle bag over his shoulder, looking a bit out of breath.

"I was just waiting for you, Major. No doubt your captain as told you about your assignment."

"He has; I'm looking forward to serving with you again, sir." He said, setting the duffle bag in a corner. "Have a seat sir."

"It's been along time, James. I've read about the things you and your men have done." Lance said, sitting down on the small couch, and then something caught his eye. "Don't tell me you still have that picture." He said, pointing to one of the many pictures that James had displayed in his office.

"Yeah, about that." James said, scratching the back of his head. James had hoped that he would get down there fast enough to take it down. The picture that the General was referring too was of the General soaked to the bone having had a bucket of water dumped over his head has part of a tradition at the academy.

"You have no idea how annoying that little tradition is. Pulling pranks on your instructors on your last day of classes…" Lance said hiding the smile that was appearing on his face in his best attempt to stay serious.

"Who's to argue with centuries old tradition, sir?" James said, trying doing the same. "While it would be nice, I bet that catching up on the academy days is not why you are here." He said, changing the subject.

"No, that's not why I'm here. You're Captain; He's a Commodore now, by the way, has filled you in with the basics." Lance said. "Captain Harrison and you will be accompanying me on the _Triumph_ in preparation for the mission. 1st Lieutenant Soul will be in command of the _Black Knights_, who will be providing drop-ship and fighter support."

Lance, who got up and started pacing like he always does, shot me a sideways glance as I paused on what the he told me.

"Or do you think that you're brother isn't ready for this task?" Lance asked

"He's ready, although he is a bit head strong and cocky. But he's been itching for his own command for awhile now. He'll be fine." I answered.

"Good. We leave as soon as you relay your orders to your squadron. I'll leave you to your work, Good day Major." And with that, the general left. James tapped his comm-badge.

"Major Soul to Lieutenant Soul."

"Matt here, sir." He responded.

"Please report to my office."

"Yes sir."

James sat back down behind his desk and let out a sigh. _This is going to be a tough week I think._ James thought as he started to come to grips with the facts of his current situation.

"Did I just hear you correctly, James?" Matt asked as I told him his current orders.

"Yes, you did. I want you to take this seriously, brother. I'm going by the General's orders on this one, if it were me, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, I wouldn't be giving you this command." James said sternly and Matt grew silent. "Matt, you do realize what this assignment means. You will be responsible for the entire operation's logistics and fighter support. That means until every last Marine has their boots on the ground, you're responsible for their lives. Are you ready for that?" I asked, looking him straight in the eyes. He paused for a moment.

"Yes sir."

"Good, now go tell the rest of the knights, you'll receive further orders later. Dismissed." I said. Matt saluted and left the room. James couldn't see it, but he knew his brother had the biggest smile on his face right now.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

_Somewhere en-route to Star base 93_

James checked over his console one more time before he brought the old junk ship that Intel called a ship out of warp at the co-oridenents. _Good god, what am I doing on this heap. I wouldn't be caught dead on this piece of sh… _James thought to him self just as the 40 year old cargo ship dropped out of warp.

To James' surprise, no one was there. He double checked his sensors, but sure enough, he was the only ship with in senor range in this sector.

The rendezvous point was chosen by Starfleet Intelligence because it was where two early detection sensor platform's sensor fields were supposed to over lap, but one was intentionally moved slightly out of alignment so that there was a thousand kilometre gap were this meeting could take place undetected.

"Where are they?" James asked. He got up out of the pilots chair and walked over to the small replicator. "Coffee, two creams, one sugar." He ordered, and when the contraption didn't respond, James kicked the bulkhead below it and the beverage materialized. It tasted terrible, but he had had worse on the front lines. _When I get home, I can't wait to brew some real coffee from Columbia._ James thought as he sipped the swill that the replicator as given him.

James didn't have to wait long when a ship dropped out of warp. To James' surprise, it was a _Norway-_Class star ship, although it had signs of heavy battle damage that had been patched up, poorly. _Bastards raided a battlefield._ James thought as he did his best to hide the anger that was welling up inside him. But almost as soon as the ship entered the area it put James' cargo ship in a tractor beam and the hum of transporters filled his ear as his vision filled with blue light of the transporter effect.

James found himself in the brig of the other ship and staring at the bulkhead. He turned around to see three men behind the force field that kept him contained.

"Hello, you must be Tate, you'll excuse the abruptness of our action, but you must understand that the nature of our organization requires it. We're very picky about who we let into our ranks." One of the men said, which James had decided was most likely the leader. James stared right into his eyes for a few seconds before he responded, then he started looking around the cell that he was confined in.

"Nice ship you have here. Starfleet vessels are hard to obtain, especially now with the war and all." James finally said.

"You'd think so, do you like it? It was formally the USS _Normandy_. We salvaged her from where the 14th fleet was defeated." The man said in response.

"My own opinions on Starfleet aside, have you no respect for the dead? A _Norway-_class star ship crewed 150 men and women. This ship was their grave." James said tersely.

"The bodies we did find found their way into the hands of Starfleet. They may be our enemy, but once they're dead, they can do no harm to us, and they get our respect, I assure you." The man explained, then he paused, then his facial expression changed suddenly, like night and day, which gave James reason to believe that this man's mental stability was in question. His stance also reminded him of something, but he couldn't think of what it was. "You'd forgive me, I haven't introduced myself. My name's Mike Powel. I lead this merry lot of men that Starfleet dubbed 'The Legion'."

"It's nice to meet you. Now, to get down to the business at hand, how's about we get talking about what you need me to do." James said, getting increasingly nervous in his holding cell.

"First things first, I don't trust people I just met. I've prepared a little test." Mike said, moving behind the brig control desk and lowering the force field. He then motioned to one of his men who promptly left, then to another, who tossed me his phaser side-arm.

Then what happened next shocked him, but James some how managed to keep it from showing on his face. Two men walked back into the room holding a woman with her arms bound behind her back, they then tossed her into the center of the room before James' feet. Tina looked up at his face with the expression of someone scared for her life.

"She's Starfleet Intel. Kill her." Mike said coldly.

James looked at Mike, then back down at Tina, whose face changed to a serious expression as if to say "_Do it"._ James, his heart thudding in his chest, lowered the phaser at Tina's head as she turned her head away wincing, and pressed the trigger.

The phaser's tip glowed, and then sputtered out.

"You should check your armoury, this phaser's faulty." James said, tossing it back to its owner. Tina just stayed there, kneeling, staring at the floor of the ships brig.

"Aaron, take Mr. Mackenzie to his quarters." Mike said to one of his men, who took James by the arm and escorted him out of the room. As soon as the door shut, Tina stood up and looked Mike in the eyes, and as tears welled up in her face, she slapped him.

"You did good. Better then I expected." Mike said, taking her into his arms.

"You ever do that again and I'll kill you." Tina said just as coldly has Mike was a few moments ago, and then she kissed him.

James looked around his quarters while pacing back and forth thinking over what just happened in the brig. _What the hell is going on here?_ James thought. _And what the hell is Tina doing here?_ Then a thought crossed his mind, which sent a shiver down his spine. _No, can't be that._ He thought as he shook his head in hopes of clearing his mind of the though that Tina could be a member of The Legion.

He sat down on his bed and looked out the window as he noticed that the ship just jumped to warp, and that his freighter was cruising right along side, then the door opened to reveal Aaron, the guard that had brought James to his quarters, which were so small, that it was the type that four Starfleet cadets would share during their academy cruise just before graduation.

"Come with me, dinner is being served in the mess hall." He ordered.

"Can't I have it brought here?" James asked, not really wanting to go.

"Our leader likes to have everyone on the same shifts to have their meals together, now let's go." Aaron said, putting his hand on his hip just above the phaser holstered there. James knew that he could jump the young man and knock the guy out before he could even lay a finger on his phaser, but that would serve no purpose, so he decided to play along.

"Interesting way of doing things, what brought this about?" James asked plainly.

"I don't really know myself. All I know that it's what our leader wants. Personally I think it has something to do with him being an ex-Starfleet Marine." Aaron said. Then it struck James. _No wonder his stance seemed familiar. You can take the marine out of the Corps, but you can't take the Corps out of the marine. Semper Fi my ass._ James thought, anger welling up inside him.

Since it was a small ship, it didn't take long to reach the mess hall, where a long table was set up in the center with eight or so chairs lining each side. Mike Powel was at the head of that table close to the door opposite the one that James had just entered. He stood up and offered him the chair immediately to his left.

"Glad that you could join us, Mr. Mackenzie, I do hope you enjoy your meal. It's not much, but you understand that a group like ours doesn't have access to the resources that a trader such as yourself is used too." He explained, as the galley cook brought out the meal, which consisted of replicated vegetables and a stew that James could only guess as to what its ingredients were.

"I've had worse." James said, wincing on the inside as he remembered what field rations tasted like. James always wondered, through centuries that the Marine Corps has been in service, first being the military arm of the United States Navy, later evolving into its current role as Starfleet's fighter pilots and ground assault forces, why the hell they hadn't perfected the taste. Mike just smirked.

"I've seen your Starfleet record before they gave you the boot. You fought a couple ground battles with Klingons before the War started. Field rations always sucked."

James acted like he was remembering something, staring at the table in front of him, tracing the artificial scar on his face. The rest of the dinner was pretty quiet, with only a few conversations between the others at the table. James decided it was best to stay out of them, in hopes to avoid questions that might expose his cover. Then mercifully the end of the evening came as Mike Powel rose to leave the table.

"Get some sleep tonight Tate, tomorrow we go over our plans, and you go on your way." He told him, then briskly turning and exiting the room. The rest of the room stared at James for a moment, and then they all shuffled off going about their own business, leaving just Aaron and James in the room.

"C'mon, let's go." The guard said, motioning towards the door. The walk back to his quarters seemed to be shorter, as all return trips seemed to be, until they finally reached their destination. James laid down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling and forced himself to doze off. He didn't get much rest this night.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

_USS Triumph_

_0530 hours_

Amanda Harrison woke up to the dull chime of the alarm she set to get her up and got out of bed reluctantly. Ten minutes later, she was ready for duty in her grey and black Starfleet uniform with a green marine tunic. She affixed her Captain's bars on her collar and headed out the door towards the mess to get breakfast and yawned.

"My, don't you seem tired?" a familiar voice said, which oddly startled her.

"'Eh? Oh, yeah, couldn't sleep very well last night, I was thinking about something." She said. She had just spent about half the night pondering what the James Soul from the future told her that night. The disturbing knowledge of knowing when one was going to die had robbed her of a good nights sleep this last week. James' eyebrows raised in an honest questioning expression.

"Really? About what?" he asked.

"Nothing important, you know how I get worked up over little things."

"Like how I forgot your birthday last year?" James responded teasingly, poking her in the shoulder. He had forgotten her birthday last year. Because of the war, they had spent that day in a ground battle taking a Dominion outpost. Two days later they had succeeded in taking the outpost and had driven the enemy out of the system, Amanda had chewed James out for a good week.

"Well you did!" Amanda shot back at him.

"You didn't have to chew into me back then, you know. It wasn't my fault that we spent it in a fox hole." He said jokingly.

"Humph." Amanda said, too frustrated to say anything, wishing that her friend didn't know how to push her buttons. _Maybe that's why I fell in love with you._ She thought to her self, letting a smile cross her face.

"What are you smiling at?" James asked with that cocky smile of his.

_Again with the teasing!_ She thought, and then lightly decked him up side the head. "Come on, let's get something to eat." Amanda finally said, trying not to laugh, but failed miserably.

"You know, I could have you brought up on charges for assaulting a superior officer." James said with a mischievous grin, but the frustrated angry glare he got from Amanda let him know that her sense of humour would only go so far.

Half way through their meal, Amanda noticed that the _Triumph_ had dropped out of warp and off in the distance, she could see Star base 93, and no sooner did this happen, the ship wide intercom made an announcement.

"Major Soul, Captain Harrison, report to the bridge." It announced. A few of the patrons in the mess hall looked in their direction as both of them cleared their table and headed out the door. A few minutes later and they were on the bridge and were greeted by the _Triumph_'s Captain, Aaron Roy.

"Welcome to the bridge." He said with a thick French Canadian accent, and just then, an alarm went off at the operations station. "Report." The captain ordered.

"A civilian transport freighter just dropped out of warp a bit too close to us, it set off the proximity alarm. It has already changed course to compensate." The officer said. The captain had a scowl on his face now.

"Hail that ship, I want to talk to her captain." He ordered. The ops officer entered in a few commands into his console and the face of 'Tate Mackenzie' appeared on the screen.

"Mind telling me why you almost rammed into my ship?"

"I apologise captain, I just had the sensors on my ship upgraded when I was last in port, haven't had the time to iron out the bugs in the new system. I didn't detect you until I dropped out of warp." 'Tate' said calmly. Then his eyes started looking at everyone on the bridge, and he recognized three of the people, his younger self and Amanda who where standing at the turbo lift doors, and General Lance, seated left of the captains chair. General Lance just stared at the screen with his arms crossed over his chest with an amused half smile on his face.

"State your identification and business at Star base 93." Aaron ordered politely, but there was an annoyed undercurrent to his voice.

"I'm Tate Mackenzie, my ships name is The _Rebellious Daisy_. I'm delivering food stuffs to a restaurant on the star base. Check with the dock master, they'll confirm everything." 'Tate' said. Aaron looked to his operations officer who nodded in confirmation.

"Very well, carry on." Aaron said turning around to sit in his chair, just about to order the comm. channel closed, he paused. "Captain, you might want to get the base's engineers to look at your sensor system."

"That's ok, Captain, my engineer is ex 'fleet, he says he'll have it fixed before we leave port."

"Good. Make sure that happens. _Triumph _out." Aaron said as he made a motion to the ops officer to cut the comm. link.

"Interesting choice of words." General Lance said, looking in James' direction. He nodded in agreement; Amanda just looked puzzled, thinking about something else. The captain was left looking at all of them, confused.

"'Fleet' is what marines call Starfleet officers. Very rarely does it get used by someone who isn't in the Corps." Jerry explained. "Mr. Gilmore, hook up with Starfleet central records and request a background check on Mr. Mackenzie, once you have any information, send it to my quarters." The General requested.

"Something on your mind, General?" Aaron asked.

"No, its nothing, just curious." He responded. "Mind if I use your ready room, Captain?" Jerry requested. The captain just nodded and motioned to the room to the left of the view screen, and the General invited the two marine officers into the captain's office to discuss the upcoming mission.

_Star Base 93 – Cargo bay 12_

_0735 hours_

James wasn't surprised that he'd see the _Triumph _here at the star base, but he chastised him self for allowing himself to slip out the marine slang that he used earlier, and knowing General Lance as he did, he'd be checking up on 'Tate' with Starfleet records. But it didn't matter now, what's done is done. What he needed to do now is figure out a way to prevent the legion from carrying out their plan. He knew that they didn't succeed, because there were no problems and the mission went on as planned.

"Yo, Tate, give me a hand with this crate." One of the crew that Mike Powel sent with him to help out and to make sure everything went as planned said. James got the sense that even during the planning session he had before James left that he still didn't trust him entirely. James walked up and helped the man with the crate. It was a lot heavier then the others, which actually contained food for the "Keystone Café" here on the star base. James was about to say something but the grim stare from the man on the other side of the crate stopped him, then that stare looked over to the other side of the cargo bay, where a large amount of cargo with the Starfleet Marine Corps insignia painted on them, most likely the weapons and ordinance needed for the mission, and four armed marine guards. Then the evil grin that crossed the face of the man with him sent a chill down James' spine. This crate didn't have food in it. Inside was a tri-cobalt torpedo warhead, and at 1730 hours this evening, when the Marine cargo is being loaded off the star base, it'll go off, killing thousands.

_USS Triumph – General Lance's Quarters_

_0812 hours_

Jerry Lance walked into his quarters and over to his desk to read the information that he had requested. As he went over it, he found nothing unusual, other then the fact that the man known as Tate Mackenzie was a former Starfleet Marine, but he graduated the year before Jerry had started teaching at the academy, so he had never met the man. Then the screen went black and was replaced with the insignia of Starfleet Intelligence, and underneath it were the words "Incoming Message, Priority Black". _Oh shit._ Jerry thought. The insignia was then replaced by the face of Brenna Covington, the director of special operations and deep cover assignments with Starfleet Intelligence. Priority Black messages were transmissions that were encrypted with the best encryption algorithms that Starfleet had, and only used by Starfleet spooks, which meant he had just stumbled onto a covert operation that had a high degree of importance.

"What can I do for you, Director?" Jerry said, calmly.

"You can explain to me why you are looking into Former Marine Lieutenant Tate Mackenzie."

"Captain Aaron Roy just spoke with him two hours ago, a sensor miscalculation almost made him drop out of warp and smash into the _Triumph._ The words he used made me curious." Jerry explained to the woman on the screen. "Guess I stepped on a few toes, huh?"

"You could say that General. You're under orders to leave this alone. Take no action that would be considered out of the ordinary." Brenna said.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Jerry asked honestly. The woman just glared at him.

"Not unless you don't like those stars on your collar. The Marine corps could always use another 2nd Lieutenant." Brenna threatened. Jerry knew that she could make that threat a reality.

"Yes ma'am." Jerry said reluctantly, and the screen went dark. He then tried to access the information that he was reading, but as he guessed, the records were gone, no trace that they had ever been on the ships computer. Intelligence did their jobs very well.

"Well, Tate, who ever you are, good luck." Jerry said to the empty room.

_Star Base 93 – Promenade_

_0924 hours_

"You know, I don't feel exactly right doing this to Tate." Tina said, resting her head on Mike's shoulder as they walked down the main concourse of the promenade.

"Second thoughts?" he asked

"No, but it still doesn't feel right, we could really use him, he's a really skilful person."

"That's true, but for this to succeed, it has to go as planed. If everything's going as scheduled, Tate is doing the paperwork with the café owner in his office, and the crew should be prepping the _Rebellious Daisy_ for departure and be gone before he realizes it. Then we can take him out and pin the attack on him." Mike explained. Tina just stayed quiet for the rest of their walk, thinking of what's going to happen next.

_Keystone Café_

_1007 hours_

Amanda sat at the table waiting patiently, wondering why General Lance had asked her to meet him here, and in civilian clothing no less, but she was never one to question the General. She didn't have to wait long though, after a few minutes of her arrival; he arrived and sat down, putting a cup of coffee in front of her, and took a sip of his own.

"Captain, I need you to do something for me, this is unofficial." He said finally.

"What is it, sir?" she responded to her superior officer

"You know that freighter captain from this morning?" he asked, and she nodded. "Well, I did a background check on him, just out of curiosity, and I was contacted by the Director of Special Operations from Starfleet Intelligence asking why I was looking up information on him, and was ordered to stay out of it." He continued; Amanda just stayed quiet, giving him her undivided attention. "After checking his cargo manifest, he's delivering supplies to this café, but if Intel wants me to stay out of it, it has to be important, and might have something to do with the upcoming operation. I need you to follow him, see what's going on, but don't interfere; he's meeting with the café's owner right now."

"Sure thing, Jerry." Amanda said.

"Well, that takes care of the rest of the paperwork." David Cross, the café owner said. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you. You're much faster then my normal supplier." He commented

"Anytime Mr Cross. You have yourself a good day, sir." 'Tate' said, shaking the man's hand and exiting the office. James made his way through the maze of tables that made up the café, walking right past a middle aged man and a woman in her mid twenties. The woman waited for a short time and started following him.

James walked down the main concourse towards the turbo lift, which was just around the corner. Amanda slowed then cautiously rounded the corner, and was quickly grabbed and thrown into the turbo lift and then she was pinned up against the lift walls with something poking into her ribs. Amanda knew it was a small phaser, and then she felt the lift stop in the turbo lift shaft.

"Why are you following me?" 'Tate' asked.

"I know I've heard that voice somewhere before." Amanda said, but it was partially muffled by the lift wall, which she was pinned too.

"Answer the question!" he demanded.

"James!" Amanda said in startled tone. Then the phaser slowly came off her ribs, and she turned around, straightening her blouse and her tussled hair. "Nice to see you too." Amanda said, looking at the stunned look on his face. Then James' face got serious.

"Why are you following me?" he asked.

"General Lance asked me too. He told me that you were here with Starfleet Intel, and that it was important, he wanted to know what it was."

"I am here with Starfleet Intel, and it is important, and I need you to let me do my job and promise me that you won't interfere. I can't tell you anymore then that."

"Alright, I'll stay out of it." She said, and then paused and looked straight at me with her eyes full of worry. "James, have you thought of anything"

"That's why I'm doing this. Intel said they'd help." James said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry. Even if they don't help, I'll think of something." He said, brushing a hand down her cheek and kissed her.

When their lips parted, Amanda let out an uncontrolled giggle. "Something funny?" he asked.

"I like you with a beard. It tickles." She responded with the smile of a school girl and her cheeks blushed crimson.

"Well, then, I guess I'll just have to get rid of it." James said with a sly smile on his face, obviously teasing her.

"What is with you and teasing me?" She asked, annoyed, her hands on her hips. James just kept on smiling and pressed the lift control to let Amanda off on the next deck, when the door opened, he lightly pushed her out. Just as the doors were closing, he gave his answer.

"You're cute when you're annoyed." He said. Amanda just stood there, her face red with both anger and embarrassment over the revelation she just received about her dearest friend. Then James' eyes widened with shock. Just over Amanda's shoulder down the corridor was Tina Robertson and Mike Powel walking down into an adjoining corridor, and the doors shut without James knowing if they had seen him or not.

"Cargo bay 12." James ordered the computer, having made up his mind on what he was going to do next.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

_Star Base 93 – Cargo Bay 12_

_1224 hours_

James tapped his foot impatiently on the deck of the turbo lift as if through sheer will, he would get the lift to move faster. As the lift reached its destination, James didn't even wait for the doors to fully open as he sidestepped out the door making his way through the small group of people who where waiting for the lift. He ran down the corridor almost full tilt and walked through the cargo bay doors to see the hatch that the _Rebellious Daisy_ should have been docked at empty.

"Can I help you with anything sir?" one of the marine guards asked.

"About five minutes ago sir, in quite a hurry too."

"Ok, Thank you Corporal." James said calmly, but that was only on the outside, in his mind, it was a flurry of thought as every instinct and every thing that he had been taught as a marine told him something was wrong, and then left the cavernous room and back to the turbo lift.

"Main Operations." James ordered the computer.

"Main Operations is a restricted area, unable to proceed. Please state authorization." The computer responded. James just grumbled with annoyance.

"Authorization Mackenzie, Tate, Lambda-Alpha-Gamma Six." James said, and few moments later he was on the Star Base's command center, he quickly looked around and found the base commander.

"Commander I need to speak with you." James said loudly, and everyone's heads turned in James' direction.

"Who the hell are you, and how the hell did you get up here. Security!" the young officer said.

"Commander, I have the proper authorization, and you have to listen to me." James said, struggling against the two large security officers that had him by the arms.

"Ok. Let him go. You can use this console." The commander said, motioning to an empty duty station. James sat down and placed his hand on the dark console.

"Computer, voice recognition Mackenzie, Tate, Lambda-Alpha-Gamma Six, display clearance information." The computer responded with a twiddle-beep and the face of 'Tate Mackenzie' appeared on the screen. The commander looked at the screen and saw that the clearance level was higher then his own.

"Ok, what can Star Base 93 do for you?" he said finally. James grabbed a padd and entered in some information and handed it to the commander.

"Transmit that to the Rebellious Daisy in a subspace burst transmission. Then send the USS _Black Rose_ to take its crew captive. I understand that her crew's morale is a little low, and I think arresting members of the 'Legion' might be the boost they need." James said, the commander nodded then handed to the pad to the station's communications officer.

"You're telling me that I had Legion operatives on my Star base?" the commander asked.

"You still do." James responded and walked over to the base's operations console. "I need you to beam this cargo container into space, and make sure you destroy it in transport." James said, imputing the container ID, somewhat amused with himself. The young ensign did so.

"Now what?" the commander asked.

"Get the fleet to start offloading the cargo needed for the offensive, but do so with transporters, and have them replace the containers with empty ones. Then we wait." James said.

_Star Base 93 – Guest Quarters_

_1512 hours_

Tina and Mike laid there in bed, having just spent the last two hours together. "It's almost time." Mike said, taking a padd off the table next to the bed. Tina put her hand on his that was holding the padd.

"Let me do it." She said, taking the padd away from him. She then promptly pushed the button that would set off the bomb they had left in the base's cargo bay.

Then they both looked at each other in confusion. Nothing happened. They were far enough away on the other side of the large station not to be affected by the explosion, but they still should have felt something. They both jumped out of bed and got dressed and headed out the door.

_Cargo Bay 12_

_1535 hours_

James walked into the cargo bay, phaser drawn and a small team of security officers behind him, only to find the room dark. One of the security personnel turned the lights back on to find the four marine guards knocked out but still alive. James then saw Mike and Tina standing there with their phaser's squared at the security team.

"Face it. Its over, you lost. Drop your weapons." James said slowly advancing. Mike was closer to James, then Tina, who was twenty meters away next to a cargo container that James didn't recognize. Mike placed his phaser on the ground and James kicked it away.

"NO!" Tina yelled, looking increasingly nervous, aiming her phaser at the security team, then at James. When she stopped on James and looked at him squarely in the eyes, her face contorted with rage. In James' memory time seemed to slow as her thumb started to depress the fire button on the phaser has two security offers opened fire on her as the lead officer started to yell for them to stop. One phaser blast hit her in the chest throwing her back against the container behind her, her phaser shot went wild, hitting the ceiling, sparks falling from the burnt out lights. The second hit the container behind her, and all James remembered was a bright flash, a brutal, searing pain in his right arm, the cold hard bulkhead behind him, which he was thrown violently into and blackness that follows unconsciousness.

One of the security officers woke up and shook his head, his head ringing, his own breathing heavy in his ears. He looked towards where the explosion happened only to see a gaping hole in the deck, fires raging everywhere as the fire suppression systems tried to put them out. Luckily the outer hull of the star base hadn't been damaged. He was then startled by the hand of a medic who started speaking to him but he couldn't hear her clearly.

"Go help Tate." The security officer said calmly, least in his own mind, he was really screaming, a result of his hearing being damaged from the explosion. The medic then ran toward the man he had pointed too and found James' body limp on the floor, a piece of metal lodged in his right arm and blood pouring out of it. The medic quickly tapped her comm. badge.

"Emergency medical transport to the Infirmary!" she said kneeling down beside James as they were both bathed in the blue light of the transporter effect.

_Star Base 93 – Infirmary_

_Two days later_

"How is he doctor?" Amanda asked, very concerned, looking at James on the bio-bed and at the bandaged stump where his right arm used to be. Commodore Matthews put his hand on her shoulder. General Lance and Brenna Covington

"He's in a coma from the head trauma that he sustained from hitting the bulkhead as hard as he did. As for his arm, the piece of shrapnel caused way too much damage to the surrounding tissue. I had to amputate to prevent infection."

"When will he wake up?" Brenna asked. She had made her way to the star base after she had heard the news.

Apparently, the container that was hit by the phaser fire was a spare deuterium fuel pod, which still had some fuel in it. It was ruptured from the blast and exploded, Vaporizing the woman in front of it, who Brenna learned was Tina Robertson, one of her operatives that she had in the Legion, and to her shock and amazement, had betrayed Starfleet and sided with them in the end. Brenna couldn't figure out why she would recruit James, only to side with the Legion and try and kill him. Only one person could answer that now, and she was carbon atoms floating down in cargo bay twelve.

"I don't know. I could bring him out of it right now with drugs, but that would cause brain damage." The doctor said. Brenna crossed her arms and thought for a moment. She then turned to Amanda, who was now at James' side.

"Captain Harrison, I take it you know about the deal we had with Commander Soul here." She inquired. Robert and Jerry looked at each other in confusion; then realized that there are something's that they didn't need to know.

"Yes ma'am."

"Don't worry about a thing, we'll hold up our end." She said, and then turned to the other people in the room. "Gentlemen, what happened in her is classified. Doctor, have the patient prepped and ready for transport to Starfleet medical on Earth as soon as he is stable. The rest of you need to return to your duties. You guys have a war to win." She ordered, and then promptly left the room. Amanda squeezed James' hand and bent down and kissed his lips, and left with her superior officers.

"Don't worry, Captain, we'll take care of him. He'll be waiting for you on Earth when this is all over." The Doctor said. Amanda turned around and smiled.

"Thank you." She said gratefully.

When the three of them left the infirmary, they were met with the site of almost thirty men and women in irons being paraded through the promenade under heavy guard.

"What's going on?" Amanda asked.

"The _Black Rose_ captured the rest of the members of the 'Legion' when they were sent out to look for the _Rebellious Daisy_. They found her adrift, disabled by the message that 'Tate' had sent, along with a stolen Starfleet vessel; her crew captured all of them with no casualties." General Lance explained.

Then the crew of the _Black Rose_ came out of the same docking hatch, being met with cheers of congratulations of a job well done.

"Erin!" someone yelled out, as Amanda noticed Matthew Soul run past her and lifting her sister up in the air and spinning her around, then passionately kissed his fiancé. He then looked at her and raised his eyebrows smiling in a devious manner, Erin giggled, her cheeks blushed and she slapped Matthew across the chest. He just kept smiling, then grabbed her hand and dragged her off to the turbo lift. Erin looked back to her sister and waved.

Amanda then noticed that someone was standing next to her. "Your Brother's a horn dog." She said to James, feeling uneasy being next to him. She told herself that this wasn't the man she loved, that man was in the infirmary. But she kept it to her self.

"Tell me something I don't know, but which is worse, my brother, or your sister going along with him?" James asked. Amanda lightly hit him in gut.

"Come on, let's go get a beer. We got a big day tomorrow."


End file.
